WorldWideScience

Sample records for high bias currents

  1. Zero bias thermally stimulated currents in synthetic diamond

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mori, R.; Miglio, S.; Bruzzi, M.; Bogani, F.; De Sio, A.; Pace, E.

    2009-06-01

    Zero bias thermally stimulated currents (ZBTSCs) have been observed in single crystal high pressure high temperature (HPHT) and polycrystalline chemical vapor deposited (pCVD) diamond films. The ZBTSC technique is characterized by an increased sensitivity with respect to a standard TSC analysis. Due to the absence of the thermally activated background current, new TSC peaks have been observed in both HPHT and pCVD diamond films, related to shallow activation energies usually obscured by the emission of the dominant impurities. The ZBTSC peaks are explained in terms of defect discharge in the nonequilibrium potential distribution created by a nonuniform traps filling at the metal-diamond junctions. The electric field due to the charged defects has been estimated in a quasizero bias TSC experiment by applying an external bias.

  2. A Very Robust AlGaN/GaN HEMT Technology to High Forward Gate Bias and Current

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bradley D. Christiansen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Reports to date of GaN HEMTs subjected to forward gate bias stress include varied extents of degradation. We report an extremely robust GaN HEMT technology that survived—contrary to conventional wisdom—high forward gate bias (+6 V and current (>1.8 A/mm for >17.5 hours exhibiting only a slight change in gate diode characteristic, little decrease in maximum drain current, with only a 0.1 V positive threshold voltage shift, and, remarkably, a persisting breakdown voltage exceeding 200 V.

  3. Neutron detection using a current biased kinetic inductance detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shishido, Hiroaki; Miyajima, Shigeyuki; Ishida, Takekazu; Narukami, Yoshito; Oikawa, Kenichi; Harada, Masahide; Oku, Takayuki; Arai, Masatoshi; Hidaka, Mutsuo; Fujimaki, Akira

    2015-01-01

    We demonstrate neutron detection using a solid state superconducting current biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID), which consists of a superconducting Nb meander line of 1 μm width and 40 nm thickness. 10 B-enriched neutron absorber layer of 150 nm thickness is placed on top of the CB-KID. Our neutron detectors are able to operate in a wide superconducting region in the bias current–temperature diagram. This is in sharp contrast with our preceding current-biased transition edge detector, which can operate only in a narrow range just below the superconducting critical temperature. The full width at half maximum of the signals remains of the order of a few tens of ns, which confirms the high speed operation of our detectors

  4. Automatic adjustment of bias current for direct current superconducting quantum interference device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Makie-Fukuda, K.; Hotta, M.; Okajima, K.; Kado, H.

    1993-01-01

    A new method of adjusting the bias current of dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is described. It is shown that the signal-to-noise ratio of a SQUID magnetometer connected in a flux-locked loop configuration is proportional to the second harmonic of the output signal from the SQUID. A circuit configuration that can automatically optimize a SQUID's bias current by measuring this second harmonic and adjusting the bias current accordingly is proposed

  5. Neutron detection using a current biased kinetic inductance detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shishido, Hiroaki, E-mail: shishido@pe.osakafu-u.ac.jp; Miyajima, Shigeyuki; Ishida, Takekazu [Department of Physics and Electronics, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan); Institute for Nanofabrication Research, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan); Narukami, Yoshito [Department of Physics and Electronics, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan); Oikawa, Kenichi; Harada, Masahide; Oku, Takayuki; Arai, Masatoshi [Materials and Life Science Division, J-PARC Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195 (Japan); Hidaka, Mutsuo [National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan); Fujimaki, Akira [Department of Quantum Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603 (Japan)

    2015-12-07

    We demonstrate neutron detection using a solid state superconducting current biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID), which consists of a superconducting Nb meander line of 1 μm width and 40 nm thickness. {sup 10}B-enriched neutron absorber layer of 150 nm thickness is placed on top of the CB-KID. Our neutron detectors are able to operate in a wide superconducting region in the bias current–temperature diagram. This is in sharp contrast with our preceding current-biased transition edge detector, which can operate only in a narrow range just below the superconducting critical temperature. The full width at half maximum of the signals remains of the order of a few tens of ns, which confirms the high speed operation of our detectors.

  6. Progressive current degradation and breakdown behavior in GaN LEDs under high reverse bias stress

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Linna; Yu Peihong; Yan Dawei; Zhou Hao; Wu Jinbo; Cui Zhiqiang; Gu Xiaofeng; Guo Zixiang; Sun Huarui

    2017-01-01

    The progressive current degradation and breakdown behaviors of GaN-based light emitting diodes under high reverse-bias stress are studied by combining the electrical, optical, and surface morphology characterizations. The current features a typical “soft breakdown” behavior, which is linearly correlated to an increase of the accumulative number of electroluminescence spots. The time-to-failure for each failure site approximately obeys a Weibull distribution with slopes of about 0.67 and 4.09 at the infant and wear-out periods, respectively. After breakdown, visible craters can be observed at the device surface as a result of transient electrostatic discharge. By performing focused ion beam cuts coupled with scan electron microscope, we observed a local current shunt path in the surface layer, caused by the rapid microstructure deterioration due to significant current heating effect, consistent well with the optical beam induced resistance change observations. (paper)

  7. Modulation of low-frequency oscillations in GaAs MESFETs' channel current by sidegating bias

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    DING Yong; LU Shengli; ZHAO Fuchuan

    2005-01-01

    Low-frequency oscillations in channel current are usually observed when measuring the GaAs MESFET's output characteristics. This paper studies the oscillations by testing the MESFET's output characteristics under different sidegate bias conditions. It is shown that the low-frequency oscillations of channel current are directly related to the sidegate bias. In other words, the sidegate bias can modulate the oscillations. Whether the sidegate bias varies positively or negatively, there will inevitably be a threshold voltage after which the low-frequency oscillations disappear. The observation is strongly dependent upon the peculiarities of channel-substrate (C-S) junction and impact ionization of traps-EL2 under high field. This conclusion is of particular pertinence to the design of low-noise GaAs IC's.

  8. Attention and memory biases as stable abnormalities among currently depressed and currently remitted individuals with Unipolar Depression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rashmi eGupta

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundIn the present study, we explored the possibility of the stability of attention bias and memory bias in currently remitted individuals with unipolar depression compared to currently depressed individuals with unipolar depression and never-depressed individuals. MethodsThe Emotional Stroop and autobiographical memory task were administered on 10 participants, who were currently depressed, currently remitted with unipolar depression, or never-depressed. In the emotional Stroop task (EST, the respondent’s task was to indicate the color of the ink of the positive, negative, and neutral words by selecting one of a series of colored blocks. In the autobiographical memory task (AMT, participants were presented with positive, negative, and neutral cue words. For each word, they were asked to report specific events from their life. ResultsBoth the attention bias and memory bias exist in both the clinical groups. In EST, both currently depressed and currently remitted groups were slower to respond to negative words compared to neutral words. Unlike EST, in AMT both currently depressed and currently remitted groups were slower to respond to positive words compared to neutral words. Interestingly, the capacity to generate specific events for negative events was higher in both currently depressed and currently remitted groups. They were over-general in their memories of positive events. Importantly, the never-depressed group was specific in their memories of both positive and negative events of their life. ConclusionsOur findings provide evidence for the stable existence of attention and memory bias in currently remitted individuals. This study has implications for the cognitive behavior therapy for depression to include modules to resolve the attention and memory bias toward negative thought and content, and to build strategies to overcome such biases.

  9. High current density ion beam measurement techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ko, W.C.; Sawatzky, E.

    1976-01-01

    High ion beam current measurements are difficult due to the presence of the secondary particles and beam neutralization. For long Faraday cages, true current can be obtained only by negative bias on the target and by summing the cage wall and target currents; otherwise, the beam will be greatly distorted. For short Faraday cages, a combination of small magnetic field and the negative target bias results in correct beam current. Either component alone does not give true current

  10. Model for an irreversible bias current in the superconducting qubit measurement process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hutchinson, G. D.; Williams, D. A.; Holmes, C. A.; Stace, T. M.; Spiller, T. P.; Barrett, S. D.; Milburn, G. J.; Hasko, D. G.

    2006-01-01

    The superconducting charge-phase ''quantronium'' qubit is considered in order to develop a model for the measurement process used in the experiment of Vion et al. [Science 296, 886 (2002)]. For this model we propose a method for including the bias current in the readout process in a fundamentally irreversible way, which to first order is approximated by the Josephson junction tilted-washboard potential phenomenology. The decohering bias current is introduced in the form of a Lindblad operator and the Wigner function for the current-biased readout Josephson junction is derived and analyzed. During the readout current pulse used in the quantronium experiment we find that the coherence of the qubit initially prepared in a symmetric superposition state is lost at a time of 0.2 ns after the bias current pulse has been applied, a time scale that is much shorter than the experimental readout time. Additionally we look at the effect of Johnson-Nyquist noise with zero mean from the current source during the qubit manipulation and show that the decoherence due to the irreversible bias current description is an order of magnitude smaller than that found through adding noise to the reversible tilted-washboard potential model. Our irreversible bias current model is also applicable to persistent-current-based qubits where the state is measured according to its flux via a small-inductance direct-current superconducting quantum interference device

  11. Low noise constant current source for bias dependent noise measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talukdar, D.; Bose, Suvendu; Bardhan, K. K.; Chakraborty, R. K.

    2011-01-01

    A low noise constant current source used for measuring the 1/f noise in disordered systems in ohmic as well as nonohmic regime is described. The source can supply low noise constant current starting from as low as 1 μA to a few tens of milliampere with a high voltage compliance limit of around 20 V. The constant current source has several stages, which can work in a standalone manner or together to supply the desired value of load current. The noise contributed by the current source is very low in the entire current range. The fabrication of a low noise voltage preamplifier modified for bias dependent noise measurements and based on the existing design available in the MAT04 data sheet is also described.

  12. Asymmetric magnetoimpedance in amorphous microwires due to bias current: Effect of torsional stress

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buznikov, N.A.; Antonov, A.S.; Granovsky, A.B.

    2014-01-01

    The influence of torsional stress on the asymmetric magnetoimpedance in a glass-coated negative magnetostrictive amorphous microwire due to bias current is studied theoretically. The longitudinal and off-diagonal impedance components are found assuming a simplified spatial distribution of the magnetoelastic anisotropy induced by the torsional stress. The asymmetry in the field dependence of the impedance components is attributed to the combination of the circular magnetic field produced by the bias current and a helical anisotropy induced by the torsional stress. The asymmetry in the magnetoimpedance and the low-field hysteresis are analyzed as a function of the bias current and torsional stress. It is shown that the application of torsional stress significantly changes the value of the bias current required to suppress the hysteresis effect. The results obtained may be useful for applications in magnetic-field and stress sensors. - Highlights: • Effects of torsional stress on magnetoimpedance in amorphous microwire are studied. • Asymmetry in magnetoimpedance is analyzed as a function of bias current and stress. • Torsional stress changes the anisotropy and effects on the microwire impedance. • Field-dependence of impedance is anhysteretic when bias current exceeds threshold value. • Threshold bias current can be tuned by the application of torsional stress

  13. Asymmetric magnetoimpedance in amorphous microwires due to bias current: Effect of torsional stress

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buznikov, N.A., E-mail: n_buznikov@mail.ru [Scientific-Research Institute of Natural Gases and Gas Technologies – GAZPROM VNIIGAZ, Razvilka, Leninsky District, Moscow Region 142717 (Russian Federation); Antonov, A.S. [Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 125412 (Russian Federation); Granovsky, A.B. [Faculty of Physics, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119992 (Russian Federation)

    2014-04-15

    The influence of torsional stress on the asymmetric magnetoimpedance in a glass-coated negative magnetostrictive amorphous microwire due to bias current is studied theoretically. The longitudinal and off-diagonal impedance components are found assuming a simplified spatial distribution of the magnetoelastic anisotropy induced by the torsional stress. The asymmetry in the field dependence of the impedance components is attributed to the combination of the circular magnetic field produced by the bias current and a helical anisotropy induced by the torsional stress. The asymmetry in the magnetoimpedance and the low-field hysteresis are analyzed as a function of the bias current and torsional stress. It is shown that the application of torsional stress significantly changes the value of the bias current required to suppress the hysteresis effect. The results obtained may be useful for applications in magnetic-field and stress sensors. - Highlights: • Effects of torsional stress on magnetoimpedance in amorphous microwire are studied. • Asymmetry in magnetoimpedance is analyzed as a function of bias current and stress. • Torsional stress changes the anisotropy and effects on the microwire impedance. • Field-dependence of impedance is anhysteretic when bias current exceeds threshold value. • Threshold bias current can be tuned by the application of torsional stress.

  14. Effect of Reverse Bias Stress on Leakage Currents and Breakdown Voltages of Solid Tantalum Capacitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teverovsky, Alexander A.

    2011-01-01

    The majority of solid tantalum capacitors are produced by high-temperature sintering of a fine tantalum powder around a tantalum wire followed by electrolytic anodization that forms a thin amorphous Ta2O5 dielectric layer and pyrolysis of manganese nitrite on the oxide to create a conductive manganese dioxide electrode. A contact to tantalum wire is used as anode terminal and to the manganese layer as a cathode terminal of the device. This process results in formation of an asymmetric Ta -- Ta2O5 -- MnO2 capacitor that has different characteristics at forward (positive bias applied to tantalum) and reverse (positive bias applied to manganese cathode) voltages. Reverse bias currents might be several orders of magnitude larger than forward leakage currents so I-V characteristics of tantalum capacitors resemble characteristics of semiconductor rectifiers. Asymmetric I-V characteristics of Ta -- anodic Ta2O5 systems have been observed at different top electrode materials including metals, electrolytes, conductive polymers, and manganese oxide thus indicating that this phenomenon is likely related to the specifics of the Ta -- Ta2O5 interface. There have been multiple attempts to explain rectifying characteristics of capacitors employing anodic tantalum pentoxide dielectrics. A brief review of works related to reverse bias (RB) behavior of tantalum capacitors shows that the mechanism of conduction in Ta -- Ta2O5 systems is still not clear and more testing and analysis is necessary to understand the processes involved. If tantalum capacitors behave just as rectifiers, then the assessment of the safe reverse bias operating conditions would be a relatively simple task. Unfortunately, these parts can degrade with time under reverse bias significantly, and this further complicates analysis of the I-V characteristics and establishing safe operating areas of the parts. On other hand, time dependence of reverse currents might provide additional information for investigation of

  15. Noise performance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs under high drain bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pang Lei; Pu Yan; Lin Xinyu; Wang Liang; Liu Jian

    2009-01-01

    The advent of fully integrated GaN PA-LNA circuits makes it meaningful to investigate the noise performance under high drain bias. However, noise performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs under high bias has not received worldwide attention in theoretical studies due to its complicated mechanisms. The noise value is moderately higher and its rate of increase is fast with increasing high voltage. In this paper, several possible mechanisms are proposed to be responsible for it. Impact ionization under high electric field incurs great fluctuation of carrier density, which increases the drain diffusion noise. Besides, higher gate leakage current related shot noise and a more severe self-heating effect are also contributors to the noise increase at high bias. Analysis from macroscopic and microscopic perspectives can help us to design new device structures to improve noise performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs under high bias. (semiconductor devices)

  16. Auger-generated hot carrier current in photo-excited forward biased single quantum well blue light emitting diodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Espenlaub, Andrew C.; Alhassan, Abdullah I.; Nakamura, Shuji; Weisbuch, Claude; Speck, James S.

    2018-04-01

    We report on measurements of the photo-modulated current-voltage and electroluminescence characteristics of forward biased single quantum well, blue InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes with and without electron blocking layers. Low intensity resonant optical excitation of the quantum well was observed to induce an additional forward current at constant forward diode bias, in contrast to the usual sense of the photocurrent in photodiodes and solar cells, as well as an increased electroluminescence intensity. The presence of an electron blocking layer only slightly decreased the magnitude of the photo-induced current at constant forward bias. Photo-modulation at constant forward diode current resulted in a reduced diode bias under optical excitation. We argue that this decrease in diode bias at constant current and the increase in forward diode current at constant applied bias can only be due to additional hot carriers being ejected from the quantum well as a result of an increased Auger recombination rate within the quantum well.

  17. Stability of fluxon motion in long Josephson junctions at high bias

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pagano, S.; Sørensen, Mads Peter; Christiansen, Peter Leth

    1988-01-01

    In long Josephson junctions the motion of fluxons is revealed by the existence of current steps, zero-field steps, in the current-voltage characteristics. In this paper we investigate the stability of the fluxon motion when high values of the current bias are involved. The investigation is carried...... dissipations and of the junction length on the switching-current value is investigated. A simple boundary model is able to describe, for junctions of overlap geometry, the qualitative dependence of the switching current on the system parameters....

  18. Attentional bias for caffeine-related stimuli in high but not moderate or non-caffeine consumers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeomans, Martin R; Javaherian, Shabnam; Tovey, Heather M; Stafford, Lorenzo D

    2005-09-01

    Attentional bias for drug-related cues has been reported with a wide range of drugs, but to date the extent to which caffeine consumers show similar biases for caffeine-related stimuli has not been tested. The present study therefore examined this issue in terms of differences in attentional bias for caffeine-related words in High, Moderate and Non-caffeine consumers using a dot-probe word task following overnight caffeine abstinence. This study was conducted to test whether caffeine consumers show an attentional bias for caffeine-related words, and whether such biases relate to habitual levels of caffeine use. Sixteen High, Moderate and Non-consumers of caffeine were asked to complete a modified dot-probe task in order to measure attentional bias for caffeine-related relative to neutral control word groups. The task was completed following overnight caffeine abstinence, and participants also completed mood and caffeine-craving measures. The High consumer group showed a significant attentional bias for the caffeine-related words, but no such bias was seen in Moderate or Non-consumer groups. As expected, craving for caffeine was strongest in the High consumers and weakest in the Non-consumers. Attentional bias in the High group correlated with self-reported caffeine consumption and with craving for caffeine, but neither effect was significant in the Moderate group. These data confirm that High caffeine consumers show attentional bias for caffeine-related stimuli, consistent with current theories of drug addiction.

  19. Strong mechanically induced effects in DC current-biased suspended Josephson junctions

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDermott, Thomas; Deng, Hai-Yao; Isacsson, Andreas; Mariani, Eros

    2018-01-01

    Superconductivity is a result of quantum coherence at macroscopic scales. Two superconductors separated by a metallic or insulating weak link exhibit the AC Josephson effect: the conversion of a DC voltage bias into an AC supercurrent. This current may be used to activate mechanical oscillations in a suspended weak link. As the DC-voltage bias condition is remarkably difficult to achieve in experiments, here we analyze theoretically how the Josephson effect can be exploited to activate and detect mechanical oscillations in the experimentally relevant condition with purely DC current bias. We unveil how changing the strength of the electromechanical coupling results in two qualitatively different regimes showing dramatic effects of the oscillations on the DC-voltage characteristic of the device. These include the appearance of Shapiro-type plateaus for weak coupling and a sudden mechanically induced retrapping for strong coupling. Our predictions, measurable in state-of-the-art experimental setups, allow the determination of the frequency and quality factor of the resonator using DC only techniques.

  20. Current-phase relations and noise in rf biased SQUIDS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jackel, L.D.; Clark, T.D.; Buhrman, R.A.

    1975-01-01

    An investigation was made of the effect of the weak link current-phase relation on noise in rf biased SQUIDs. Non-sinusoidal current-phase relations were observed in various weak links, and these non-sinusoidal relations were correlated with significantly increased intrinsic noise in the SQUID ring. The current-phase relation was also found to affect the amplitude of the rf SQUID ring dissipation. The result of an rf SQUID system noise analysis shows that, due to increased intrinsic noise and reduced ring dissipation, the minimum attainable noise for a SQUID ring having a very non-sinusoidal current-phase relation is considerably greater than for a ring with a sinusoidal relation

  1. Excitation mechanism for nickel and argon lines emitted by radio-frequency glow discharge plasma associated with bias current introduction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kodama, Kenji; Wagatsuma, Kazuaki

    2004-01-01

    The introduction of d.c. bias current to an r.f. glow discharge plasma led to enhancement in the intensity of particular emission lines. In order to investigate the excitation mechanism, a large number of nickel emission lines was measured with and without the bias-current introduction. Emission intensities of nickel atomic lines were predominantly elevated by conducting bias current, especially when the emission lines have an excitation energy of approximately 5 eV. This phenomenon could be explained from the additional excitation through collisions with the introduced electrons having kinetic energies favorable for the excitation of such nickel atomic lines. However, this additional excitation mechanism was less effective for excited states of nickel ion, argon atom and argon ion, because their excitation energies were fairly high compared with the excitation energies of Ni atomic lines

  2. Bias-stress characterization of solution-processed organic field-effect transistor based on highly ordered liquid crystals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kunii, M.; Iino, H.; Hanna, J.

    2017-06-01

    Bias-stress effects in solution-processed, 2-decyl-7-phenyl-[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (Ph-BTBT-10) field effect transistors (FETs) are studied under negative and positive direct current bias. The bottom gate, bottom contact polycrystalline Ph-BTBT-10 FET with a hybrid gate dielectric of polystyrene and SiO2 shows high field effect mobility as well as a steep subthreshold slope when fabricated with a highly ordered smectic E liquid crystalline (SmE) film as a precursor. Negative gate bias-stress causes negative threshold voltage shift (ΔVth) for Ph-BTBT-10 FET in ambient air, but ΔVth rapidly decreases as the gate bias decreases and approaches to near zero when the gate bias goes down to 9 V in amplitude. In contrast, positive gate bias-stress causes negligible ΔVth even with a relatively high bias voltage. These results conclude that Ph-BTBT-10 FET has excellent bias-stress stability in ambient air in the range of low to moderate operating voltages.

  3. Drought Duration Biases in Current Global Climate Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moon, Heewon; Gudmundsson, Lukas; Seneviratne, Sonia

    2016-04-01

    Several droughts in the recent past are characterized by their increased duration and intensity. In particular, substantially prolonged droughts have brought major societal and economic losses in certain regions, yet climate change projections of such droughts in terms of duration is subject to large uncertainties. This study analyzes the biases of drought duration in state-of-the-art global climate model (GCM) simulations from the 5th phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Drought durations are defined as negative precipitation anomalies and evaluated with three observation-based datasets in the period of 1901-2010. Large spread in biases of GCMs is commonly found in all regions, with particular strong biases in North East Brazil, Africa, Northern Australia, Central America, Central and Northern Europe, Sahel and Asia. Also in most regions, the interquartile range of bias lies below 0, meaning that the GCMs tend to underestimate drought durations. Meanwhile in some regions such as Western South America, the Amazon, Sahel, West and South Africa, and Asia, considerable inconsistency among the three observation-based datasets were found. These results indicate substantial uncertainties and errors in current GCMs for simulating drought durations as well as a large spread in observation-based datasets, both of which are found to be particularly strong in those regions that are often considered to be hot spots of projected future drying. The underlying sources of these uncertainties need to be identified in further study and will be applied to constrain GCM-based drought projections under climate change.

  4. Current-Induced Forces and Hot Spots in Biased Nanojunctions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lu, Jing Tao; Christensen, Rasmus Bjerregaard; Wang, Jian-Sheng

    2015-01-01

    We investigate theoretically the interplay of current-induced forces (CIFs), Joule heating, and heat transport inside a current-carrying nanoconductor. We find that the CIFs, due to the electron-phonon coherence, can control the spatial heat dissipation in the conductor. This yields a significant...... asymmetric concentration of excess heating (hot spot) even for a symmetric conductor. When coupled to the electrode phonons, CIFs drive different phonon heat flux into the two electrodes. First-principles calculations on realistic biased nanojunctions illustrate the importance of the effect....

  5. Effects of DC bias on magnetic performance of high grades grain-oriented silicon steels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, Guang; Cheng, Ling [Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Transmission Technology,Beijing 102211 (China); Lu, Licheng [State Grid Corporation of China, Beijing 100031 (China); Yang, Fuyao; Chen, Xin [Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Transmission Technology,Beijing 102211 (China); Zhu, Chengzhi [State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Company, Hangzhou 310007 (China)

    2017-03-15

    When high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission adopting mono-polar ground return operation mode or unbalanced bipolar operation mode, the invasion of DC current into neutral point of alternating current (AC) transformer will cause core saturation, temperature increasing, and vibration acceleration. Based on the MPG-200D soft magnetic measurement system, the influence of DC bias on magnetic performance of 0.23 mm and 0.27 mm series (P{sub 1.7}=0.70–1.05 W/kg, B{sub 8}>1.89 T) grain-oriented (GO) silicon steels under condition of AC / DC hybrid excitation were systematically realized in this paper. For the high magnetic induction GO steels (core losses are the same), greater thickness can lead to stronger ability of resisting DC bias, and the reasons for it were analyzed. Finally, the magnetostriction and A-weighted magnetostriction velocity level of GO steel under DC biased magnetization were researched. - Highlights: • Magnetic properties of 0.23 mm and 0.27 mm series (P{sub 1.7}=0.70–1.05 W/kg, B{sub 8}>1.89 T) grain-oriented (GO) silicon steels under condition of AC / DC hybrid excitation were systematically analyzed. • Influence of DC biased magnetization on core loss, magnetostriction, and A-weighted magnetostriction velocity level of GO steel were researched. • Greater thickness and relatively lower magnetic induction (B{sub 8}>1.89 T yet) of GO steel can lead to stronger ability of resisting DC bias, and the reasons for it were analyzed.

  6. Bias-field equalizer for bubble memories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keefe, G. E.

    1977-01-01

    Magnetoresistive Perm-alloy sensor monitors bias field required to maintain bubble memory. Sensor provides error signal that, in turn, corrects magnitude of bias field. Error signal from sensor can be used to control magnitude of bias field in either auxiliary set of bias-field coils around permanent magnet field, or current in small coils used to remagnetize permanent magnet by infrequent, short, high-current pulse or short sequence of pulses.

  7. Analysis of Reverse-Bias Leakage Current Mechanisms in Metal/GaN Schottky Diodes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Pipinys

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Temperature-dependent reverse-bias current-voltage characteristics obtained by other researchers for Schottky diodes fabricated on GaN are reinterpreted in terms of phonon-assisted tunneling (PhAT model. Temperature dependence of reverse-bias leakage current is shown could be caused by the temperature dependence of electron tunneling rate from traps in the metal-semiconductor interface to the conduction band of semiconductor. A good fit of experimental data with the theory is received in a wide temperature range (from 80 K to 500 K using for calculation the effective mass of 0.222 me. and for the phonon energy the value of 70 meV. The temperature and bias voltages dependences of an apparent barrier height (activation energy are also explicable in the framework of the PhAT model.

  8. Direct-current substrate bias effects on amorphous silicon sputter-deposited films for thin film transistor fabrication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jun, Seung-Ik; Rack, Philip D.; McKnight, Timothy E.; Melechko, Anatoli V.; Simpson, Michael L.

    2005-01-01

    The effect that direct current (dc) substrate bias has on radio frequency-sputter-deposited amorphous silicon (a-Si) films has been investigated. The substrate bias produces a denser a-Si film with fewer defects compared to unbiased films. The reduced number of defects results in a higher resistivity because defect-mediated conduction paths are reduced. Thin film transistors (TFTs) that were completely sputter deposited were fabricated and characterized. The TFT with the biased a-Si film showed lower leakage (off-state) current, higher on/off current ratio, and higher transconductance (field effect mobility) than the TFT with the unbiased a-Si film

  9. A clinical trial with combined transcranial direct current stimulation and alcohol approach bias retraining

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    den Uyl, T.E.; Gladwin, T.E.; Rinck, M.; Lindenmeyer, J.; Wiers, R.W.

    2017-01-01

    Two studies showed an improvement in clinical outcomes after alcohol approach bias retraining, a form of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM). We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could enhance effects of CBM. TDCS is a neuromodulation technique that can increase

  10. Bias-dependent high saturation solar LBIC scanning of solar cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vorster, F.J.; van Dyk, E.E. [Department of Physics, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, P.O. Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031 (South Africa)

    2007-06-15

    A light beam-induced current measurement system that uses concentrated solar radiation as a beam probe to map spatially distributed defects on a solar cell has been developed and tested [F.J. Vorster, E.E. van Dyk, Rev. Sci. Instrum., submitted for review]. The induced current response from a flat plate EFG Si solar cell was mapped as a function of surface position and cell bias by using a solar light beam induced current (S-LBIC) mapping system while at the same time dynamically biasing the whole cell with an external voltage. This paper examines the issues relating to transient capacitive effects as well as the electrical behaviour of typical solar cell defect mechanisms under spot illumination. By examining the bias dependence of the S-LBIC maps, various defect mechanisms of photovoltaic (PV) cells under concentrated solar irradiance may be identified. The techniques employed to interpret the spatially distributed IV curves as well as initial results are discussed. (author)

  11. High-Q perpendicular-biased ferrite-tuned cavity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carlini, R.D.; Thiessen, H.A.; Potter, J.M.

    1983-01-01

    Rapid-cycling proton synchrotrons, such as the proposed LAMPF II accelerator, require approximately 10 MV per turn rf with 17% tuning range near 50 MHz. The traditional approach to ferrite-tuned cavities uses a ferrite which is longitudinally biased (rf magnetic field parallel to bias field). This method leads to unacceptably high losses in the ferrite. At Los Alamos, we are developing a cavity with transverse bias (rf magnetic field perpendicular to the bias field) that makes use of the tensor permeability of the ferrite. Modest power tests of a small (10-cm-dia) quarter-wave singly re-entrant cavity tuned by nickel-zinc ferrites and aluminum-doped garnets indicate that the losses in the ferrite can be made negligible compared with the losses due to the surface resistivity of the copper cavity at power levels from 2 to 200 watts

  12. Multipacting in a coaxial coupler with bias voltage for SRF operation with a large beam current

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Z.-K.; Wang, Ch.; Chang, F.-Y.; Chang, L.-H.; Chang, M.-H.; Chen, L.-J.; Chung, F.-T.; Lin, M.-C.; Lo, C.-H.; Tsai, C.-L.; Tsai, M.-H.; Yeh, M.-S.; Yu, T.-C.

    2016-09-01

    A superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) module is commonly used for a high-energy accelerator; its purpose is to provide energy to the particle beam. Because of the low power dissipation and smaller impedance of a higher-order mode for this module, it can provide more power to the particle beam with better stability through decreasing the couple bunch instability. A RF coupler is necessary to transfer the high power from a RF generator to the cavity. A coupler of coaxial type is a common choice. With high-power operation, it might suffer from multipacting, which is a resonance phenomenon due to re-emission of secondary electrons. Applying a bias voltage between inner and outer conductors of the coaxial coupler might increase or decrease the strength of the multipacting effect. We studied the effect of a bias voltage on multipacting using numerical simulation to track the motion of the electrons. The simulation results and an application for SRF operation with a large beam current are presented in this paper.

  13. B-periodic oscillations in the Hall-resistance induced by a dc-current-bias under combined microwave-excitation and dc-current bias in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Han-Chun; Reichl, C; Wegscheider, W; Mani, R G

    2018-05-18

    We report the observation of dc-current-bias-induced B-periodic Hall resistance oscillations and Hall plateaus in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system under combined microwave radiation- and dc bias excitation at liquid helium temperatures. The Hall resistance oscillations and plateaus appear together with concomitant oscillations also in the diagonal magnetoresistance. The periods of Hall and diagonal resistance oscillations are nearly identical, and source power (P) dependent measurements demonstrate sub-linear relationship of the oscillation amplitude with P over the span 0 < P ≤ 20 mW.

  14. Probing the bias of radio sources at high redshift

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Passmoor, S

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The relationship between the clustering of dark matter and that of luminous matter is often described using the bias parameter. Here, we provide a new method to probe the bias of intermediate-to-high-redshift radio continuum sources for which...

  15. RF generator interlock by plasma grid bias current - An alternate to Hα interlock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bandyopadhyay, M.; Gahlaut, A.; Yadav, R. K.; Pandya, K.; Tyagi, H.; Vupugalla, M.; Bhuyan, M.; Bhagora, J.; Chakraborty, A.

    2017-08-01

    ROBIN is inductively coupled plasma (ICP) based negative hydrogen ion source, operated with a 100kW, 1MHz Tetrode based RF generator (RFG). Inductive plasma ignition by the RFG in ROBIN is associated with electron seeding by a hot filament and a gas puff. RFG is triggered by the control system to deliver power just at the peak pressure of the gas puff. Once plasma is ignited due to proper impedance matching, a bright light, dominated by Hα (˜656nm wavelength) radiation is available inside RF driver which is used as a feedback signal to the RFG to continue its operation. If impedance matching is not correct, plasma is not produced due to lack of power coupling and bright light is not available. During such condition, reflected RF power may damage the RFG. Therefore, to protect the RFG, it needs to be switched off automatically within 200ms by the control system in such cases. This plasma light based RFG interlock is adopted from BATMAN ion source. However, in case of vacuum immersed RF ion source in reactor grade NBI system, such plasma light based interlock may not be feasible due to lack of adequate optical fiber interfaces. In reactor grade NBI system, neutron and gamma radiations have impact on materials which may lead to frequent maintenance and machine down time. The present demonstration of RFG interlock by Bias Current (BC) in ROBIN testbed gives an alternate option in this regard. In ROBIN, a bias plate (BP) is placed in the plasma chamber near the plasma grid (PG). BP is electrically connected to the plasma chamber wall of the ion source and PG is isolated from the wall. A high current ˜85 A direct current (DC) power supply of voltage in the range of 0 - 33V is connected between the PG and the BP in such a way that PG can be biased positively with respect to the BP or plasma chamber. This arrangement is actually made to absorb electrons and correspondingly reduce co-extracted electron current during beam extraction. However, in case of normal plasma

  16. In situ electrical probing and bias-mediated manipulation of dielectric nanotubes in a high-resolution transmission electron microscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Golberg, D.; Mitome, M.; Kurashima, K.; Zhi, C.Y.; Tang, C.C.; Bando, Y.; Lourie, O.

    2006-01-01

    Boron nitride nanotubes filled with magnesium oxides [MgO, MgO 2 ] and/or hydroxide [Mg(OH) 2 ] are electrically probed and delicately manipulated inside a 300 kV JEOL-3000F high-resolution transmission analytical electron microscope equipped with a side-entry 'Nanofactory Instruments' piezoholder. At a low bias the nanotubes demonstrate truly insulating behavior. At a high bias of ±30 V they show reversible breakdown current of several dozens of nA. Under 300 kV electron beam irradiation the nanotubes are positively charged that allows us to perform on-demand manipulation with them through tuning of polarity and/or value of a bias voltage on a gold counterelectrode from -140 to +140 V, owing to the prominent electrostatic nanotube-electrode interactions

  17. Biased low differential input impedance current receiver/converter device and method for low noise readout from voltage-controlled detectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degtiarenko, Pavel V [Williamsburg, VA; Popov, Vladimir E [Newport News, VA

    2011-03-22

    A first stage electronic system for receiving charge or current from voltage-controlled sensors or detectors that includes a low input impedance current receiver/converter device (for example, a transimpedance amplifier), which is directly coupled to the sensor output, a source of bias voltage, and the device's power supply (or supplies), which use the biased voltage point as a baseline.

  18. Self-powered photogalvanic phosphorene photodetectors with high polarization sensitivity and suppressed dark current.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shuaishuai; Wang, Tao; Chen, Xiaoshuang; Lu, Wei; Xie, Yiqun; Hu, Yibin

    2018-04-26

    High polarization sensitivity, suppressed dark current and low energy consumption are all desirable device properties for photodetectors. In this work, we propose phosphorene-based photodetectors that are driven using photogalvanic effects (PGEs). The inversion symmetry of pristine phosphorene is broken using either application of an out-of-plane gate voltage or a heterostructure that is composed of the original phosphorene and blue phosphorene. The potential asymmetry enables PGEs under illumination by polarized light. Quantum transport calculations show that robust photocurrents are indeed generated by PGEs under a zero external bias voltage because of the broken inversion symmetry. These results indicate that the proposed photodetector is self-powered. In addition, the zero bias voltage eliminates the dark currents that are caused by application of an external bias voltage to traditional photodetectors. High polarization sensitivity to both linearly and circularly polarized light can also be realized, with extinction ratios ranging up to 102. The photoresponse of the proposed phosphorene/blue phosphorene heterostructure can be greatly enhanced by gating and is several orders of magnitude higher than that in gated phosphorene.

  19. High linearity current communicating passive mixer employing a simple resistor bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Rongjiang; Guo Guiliang; Yan Yuepeng

    2013-01-01

    A high linearity current communicating passive mixer including the mixing cell and transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is introduced. It employs the resistor in the TIA to reduce the source voltage and the gate voltage of the mixing cell. The optimum linearity and the maximum symmetric switching operation are obtained at the same time. The mixer is implemented in a 0.25 μm CMOS process. The test shows that it achieves an input third-order intercept point of 13.32 dBm, conversion gain of 5.52 dB, and a single sideband noise figure of 20 dB. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  20. An auto-biased 0.5 um CMOS transconductor for very high frequency applications

    OpenAIRE

    Garrido, Nuno; Franca, José E.

    1998-01-01

    This paper describes a CMOS transconductance cell for the implementation of very high frequency current-mode gm-C filters. It features simple pseudo-differential circuitry employing small device size transistors and yielding a power dissipation of less than 1 mW/pole at nominal 3.0 V supply voltage. Self-biased common-mode voltage designed to minimize mismatch errors, improves noise and stability behavior. Short channel effects are analyzed and simulation results are presented.

  1. Predictors of Biased Self-perception in Individuals with High Social Anxiety: The Effect of Self-consciousness in the Private and Public Self Domains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henrik Nordahl

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available “Biased self-perception,” the tendency to perceive one’s social performance as more negative than observers do, is characteristic of socially anxious individuals. Self-attention processes are hypothesised to underlie biased self-perception, however, different models emphasise different aspects of self-attention, with attention to the public aspects of the self being prominent. The current study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of two types of dispositional self-attention; public- and private self-consciousness to biased self-perception in a high (n = 48 versus a low (n = 48 social anxiety group undergoing an interaction task. The main finding was that private self-consciousness explained substantial and unique variance in biased negative self-perception in individuals with high social anxiety, while public self-consciousness did not. This relationship was independent of increments in state anxiety. Private self-consciousness appeared to have a specific association with bias related to overestimation of negative social performance rather than underestimation of positive social performance. The implication of this finding is that current treatment models of Social anxiety disorder might include broader aspects of self-focused attention, especially in the context of formulating self-evaluation biases.

  2. Predictors of Biased Self-perception in Individuals with High Social Anxiety: The Effect of Self-consciousness in the Private and Public Self Domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordahl, Henrik; Plummer, Alice; Wells, Adrian

    2017-01-01

    "Biased self-perception," the tendency to perceive one's social performance as more negative than observers do, is characteristic of socially anxious individuals. Self-attention processes are hypothesised to underlie biased self-perception, however, different models emphasise different aspects of self-attention, with attention to the public aspects of the self being prominent. The current study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of two types of dispositional self-attention; public- and private self-consciousness to biased self-perception in a high ( n = 48) versus a low ( n = 48) social anxiety group undergoing an interaction task. The main finding was that private self-consciousness explained substantial and unique variance in biased negative self-perception in individuals with high social anxiety, while public self-consciousness did not. This relationship was independent of increments in state anxiety. Private self-consciousness appeared to have a specific association with bias related to overestimation of negative social performance rather than underestimation of positive social performance. The implication of this finding is that current treatment models of Social anxiety disorder might include broader aspects of self-focused attention, especially in the context of formulating self-evaluation biases.

  3. Modelling of radial electric fields and currents during divertor plate biasing on TdeV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lachambre, J.L.; Quirion, B.; Boucher, C.

    1994-01-01

    A simple model based on non-ambipolar radial transport and planar sheath physics is used to describe the generation of radial electric fields and currents in the scrape-off layer of the Tokamak de Varennes (TdeV) during divertor plate biasing. In general, the calculated predictions compare favourably with TdeV results over a variety of plasma conditions and divertor magnetic configurations. Validated by the experiment, the model is used to study the scaling laws of perpendicular ion mobility and to test existing related theories. Finally, the model is proposed as a useful tool for the design and upgrade of biased divertors through optimization of the plate and throat geometry. (author). 35 refs, 16 figs, 1 tab

  4. AC bias operation of the perpendicular biased ferrite tuned cavity for the TRIUMF KAON Factory booster synchrotron

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poirier, R.L.; Enegren, T.A.; Enchevich, I.B.

    1991-05-01

    The RF cavity for the booster synchrotron requires a frequency swing from 46 MHz at a repetition rate of 50 Hz and a maximum accelerating gap voltage of 65 kV. A DC biased prototype cavity built at LANL using perpendicular-biased yttrium-garnet ferrites, rather than the more conventional parallel-biased NiZn ferrites, has now undergone major reconstruction at TRIUMF for AC bias operation. RF signal level measurements have shown that the frequency swing at a repetition rate of 50 Hz can be accomplished and still handle the eddy current losses in the cavity structures with minimal effect on the magnetizing field. The prototype cavity is now undergoing high power RF tests with full power AC bias operation. The results of these tests and operational experience is reported. (Author) ref., 6 figs

  5. DC bias effect on alternating current electrical conductivity of poly(ethylene terephthalate)/alumina nanocomposites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikam, Pravin N.; Deshpande, Vineeta D.

    2016-05-01

    Polymer nanocomposites based on metal oxide (ceramic) nanoparticles are a new class of materials with unique properties and designed for various applications such as electronic device packaging, insulation, fabrication and automotive industries. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/alumina (Al2O3) nanocomposites with filler content between 1 wt% and 5 wt% were prepared by melt compounding method using co-rotating twin screw extruder and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and precision LCR meter techniques. The results revealed that proper uniform dispersion at lower content up to 2 wt% of nano-alumina observed by using TEM. Aggregation of nanoparticles was observed at higher content of alumina examined by using SEM and TEM. The frequency dependences of the alternating current (AC) conductivity (σAC) of PET/alumina nanocomposites on the filler content and DC bias were investigated in the frequency range of 20Hz - 1MHz. The results showed that the AC and direct current (DC) conductivity increases with increasing DC bias and nano-alumina content upto 3 wt%. It follows the Jonscher's universal power law of solids. It revealed that σAC of PET/alumina nanocomposites can be well characterized by the DC conductivity (σDC), critical frequency (ωc), critical exponent of the power law (s). Roll of DC bias potential led to an increase of DC conductivity (σDC) due to the creation of additional conducting paths with the polymer nanocomposites and percolation behavior achieved through co-continuous morphology.

  6. Current linearity and operation stability in Al2O3-gate AlGaN/GaN MOS high electron mobility transistors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishiguchi, Kenya; Kaneki, Syota; Ozaki, Shiro; Hashizume, Tamotsu

    2017-10-01

    To investigate current linearity and operation stability of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), we have fabricated and characterized the Al2O3-gate MOS-HEMTs without and with a bias annealing in air at 300 °C. Compared with the as-fabricated (unannealed) MOS HEMTs, the bias-annealed devices showed improved linearity of I D-V G curves even in the forward bias regime, resulting in increased maximum drain current. Lower subthreshold slope was also observed after bias annealing. From the precise capacitance-voltage analysis on a MOS diode fabricated on the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, it was found that the bias annealing effectively reduced the state density at the Al2O3/AlGaN interface. This led to efficient modulation of the AlGaN surface potential close to the conduction band edge, resulting in good gate control of two-dimensional electron gas density even at forward bias. In addition, the bias-annealed MOS HEMT showed small threshold voltage shift after applying forward bias stress and stable operation even at high temperatures.

  7. Current control for magnetized plasma in direct-current plasma-immersion ion implantation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang Deli; Chu, Paul K.

    2003-01-01

    A method to control the ion current in direct-current plasma-immersion ion implantation (PIII) is reported for low-pressure magnetized inductively coupled plasma. The ion current can be conveniently adjusted by applying bias voltage to the conducting grid that separates plasma formation and implantation (ion acceleration) zones without the need to alter the rf input power, gas flux, or other operating conditions. The ion current that diminishes with an increase in grid bias in magnetized plasmas can be varied from 48 to 1 mA by increasing the grid voltage from 0 to 70 V at -50 kV sample bias and 0.5 mTorr hydrogen pressure. High implantation voltage and monoenergetic immersion implantation can now be achieved by controlling the ion current without varying the macroscopic plasma parameters. The experimental results and interpretation of the effects are presented in this letter. This technique is very attractive for PIII of planar samples that require on-the-fly adjustment of the implantation current at high implantation voltage but low substrate temperature. In some applications such as hydrogen PIII-ion cut, it may obviate the need for complicated sample cooling devices that must work at high voltage

  8. delta-biased Josephson tunnel junctions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Monaco, R.; Mygind, Jesper; Koshelet, V.

    2010-01-01

    Abstract: The behavior of a long Josephson tunnel junction drastically depends on the distribution of the dc bias current. We investigate the case in which the bias current is fed in the central point of a one-dimensional junction. Such junction configuration has been recently used to detect...... the persistent currents circulating in a superconducting loop. Analytical and numerical results indicate that the presence of fractional vortices leads to remarkable differences from the conventional case of uniformly distributed dc bias current. The theoretical findings are supported by detailed measurements...

  9. Evaluation of bias associated with high-multiplex, target-specific pre-amplification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven T. Okino

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We developed a novel PCR-based pre-amplification (PreAmp technology that can increase the abundance of over 350 target genes one million-fold. To assess potential bias introduced by PreAmp we utilized ERCC RNA reference standards, a model system that quantifies measurement error in RNA analysis. We assessed three types of bias: amplification bias, dynamic range bias and fold-change bias. We show that our PreAmp workflow introduces only minimal amplification and fold-change bias under stringent conditions. We do detect dynamic range bias if a target gene is highly abundant and PreAmp occurred for 16 or more PCR cycles; however, this type of bias is easily correctable. To assess PreAmp bias in a gene expression profiling experiment, we analyzed a panel of genes that are regulated during differentiation using the NTera2 stem cell model system. We find that results generated using PreAmp are similar to results obtained using standard qPCR (without the pre-amplification step. Importantly, PreAmp maintains patterns of gene expression changes across samples; the same biological insights would be derived from a PreAmp experiment as with a standard gene expression profiling experiment. We conclude that our PreAmp technology can facilitate analysis of extremely limited samples in gene expression quantification experiments.

  10. High bias gas flows increase lung injury in the ventilated preterm lamb.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katinka P Bach

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Mechanical ventilation of preterm babies increases survival but can also cause ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI, leading to the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD. It is not known whether shear stress injury from gases flowing into the preterm lung during ventilation contributes to VILI. METHODS: Preterm lambs of 131 days' gestation (term = 147 d were ventilated for 2 hours with a bias gas flow of 8 L/min (n = 13, 18 L/min (n = 12 or 28 L/min (n = 14. Physiological parameters were measured continuously and lung injury was assessed by measuring mRNA expression of early injury response genes and by histological analysis. Control lung tissue was collected from unventilated age-matched fetuses. Data were analysed by ANOVA with a Tukey post-hoc test when appropriate. RESULTS: High bias gas flows resulted in higher ventilator pressures, shorter inflation times and decreased ventilator efficiency. The rate of rise of inspiratory gas flow was greatest, and pulmonary mRNA levels of the injury markers, EGR1 and CTGF, were highest in lambs ventilated with bias gas flows of 18 L/min. High bias gas flows resulted in increased cellular proliferation and abnormal deposition of elastin, collagen and myofibroblasts in the lung. CONCLUSIONS: High ventilator bias gas flows resulted in increased lung injury, with up-regulation of acute early response genes and increased histological lung injury. Bias gas flows may, therefore, contribute to VILI and BPD.

  11. High and far: biases in the location of protected areas.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucas N Joppa

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: About an eighth of the earth's land surface is in protected areas (hereafter "PAs", most created during the 20(th century. Natural landscapes are critical for species persistence and PAs can play a major role in conservation and in climate policy. Such contributions may be harder than expected to implement if new PAs are constrained to the same kinds of locations that PAs currently occupy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quantitatively extending the perception that PAs occupy "rock and ice", we show that across 147 nations PA networks are biased towards places that are unlikely to face land conversion pressures even in the absence of protection. We test each country's PA network for bias in elevation, slope, distances to roads and cities, and suitability for agriculture. Further, within each country's set of PAs, we also ask if the level of protection is biased in these ways. We find that the significant majority of national PA networks are biased to higher elevations, steeper slopes and greater distances to roads and cities. Also, within a country, PAs with higher protection status are more biased than are the PAs with lower protection statuses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, PAs are biased towards where they can least prevent land conversion (even if they offer perfect protection. These globally comprehensive results extend findings from nation-level analyses. They imply that siting rules such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2010 Target [to protect 10% of all ecoregions] might raise PA impacts if applied at the country level. In light of the potential for global carbon-based payments for avoided deforestation or REDD, these results suggest that attention to threat could improve outcomes from the creation and management of PAs.

  12. DC bias effect on alternating current electrical conductivity of poly(ethylene terephthalate)/alumina nanocomposites

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nikam, Pravin N., E-mail: pravinya26@gmail.com; Deshpande, Vineeta D., E-mail: drdeshpandevd@gmail.com [Department of Physics, Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai-400019, Maharashtra (India)

    2016-05-06

    Polymer nanocomposites based on metal oxide (ceramic) nanoparticles are a new class of materials with unique properties and designed for various applications such as electronic device packaging, insulation, fabrication and automotive industries. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/alumina (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) nanocomposites with filler content between 1 wt% and 5 wt% were prepared by melt compounding method using co-rotating twin screw extruder and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and precision LCR meter techniques. The results revealed that proper uniform dispersion at lower content up to 2 wt% of nano-alumina observed by using TEM. Aggregation of nanoparticles was observed at higher content of alumina examined by using SEM and TEM. The frequency dependences of the alternating current (AC) conductivity (σ{sub AC}) of PET/alumina nanocomposites on the filler content and DC bias were investigated in the frequency range of 20Hz - 1MHz. The results showed that the AC and direct current (DC) conductivity increases with increasing DC bias and nano-alumina content upto 3 wt%. It follows the Jonscher’s universal power law of solids. It revealed that σ{sub AC} of PET/alumina nanocomposites can be well characterized by the DC conductivity (σ{sub DC}), critical frequency (ω{sub c}), critical exponent of the power law (s). Roll of DC bias potential led to an increase of DC conductivity (σ{sub DC}) due to the creation of additional conducting paths with the polymer nanocomposites and percolation behavior achieved through co-continuous morphology.

  13. DC bias effect on alternating current electrical conductivity of poly(ethylene terephthalate)/alumina nanocomposites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikam, Pravin N.; Deshpande, Vineeta D.

    2016-01-01

    Polymer nanocomposites based on metal oxide (ceramic) nanoparticles are a new class of materials with unique properties and designed for various applications such as electronic device packaging, insulation, fabrication and automotive industries. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/alumina (Al_2O_3) nanocomposites with filler content between 1 wt% and 5 wt% were prepared by melt compounding method using co-rotating twin screw extruder and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and precision LCR meter techniques. The results revealed that proper uniform dispersion at lower content up to 2 wt% of nano-alumina observed by using TEM. Aggregation of nanoparticles was observed at higher content of alumina examined by using SEM and TEM. The frequency dependences of the alternating current (AC) conductivity (σ_A_C) of PET/alumina nanocomposites on the filler content and DC bias were investigated in the frequency range of 20Hz - 1MHz. The results showed that the AC and direct current (DC) conductivity increases with increasing DC bias and nano-alumina content upto 3 wt%. It follows the Jonscher’s universal power law of solids. It revealed that σ_A_C of PET/alumina nanocomposites can be well characterized by the DC conductivity (σ_D_C), critical frequency (ω_c), critical exponent of the power law (s). Roll of DC bias potential led to an increase of DC conductivity (σ_D_C) due to the creation of additional conducting paths with the polymer nanocomposites and percolation behavior achieved through co-continuous morphology.

  14. Empathy costs: Negative emotional bias in high empathisers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chikovani, George; Babuadze, Lasha; Iashvili, Nino; Gvalia, Tamar; Surguladze, Simon

    2015-09-30

    Excessive empathy has been associated with compassion fatigue in health professionals and caregivers. We investigated an effect of empathy on emotion processing in 137 healthy individuals of both sexes. We tested a hypothesis that high empathy may underlie increased sensitivity to negative emotion recognition which may interact with gender. Facial emotion stimuli comprised happy, angry, fearful, and sad faces presented at different intensities (mild and prototypical) and different durations (500ms and 2000ms). The parameters of emotion processing were represented by discrimination accuracy, response bias and reaction time. We found that higher empathy was associated with better recognition of all emotions. We also demonstrated that higher empathy was associated with response bias towards sad and fearful faces. The reaction time analysis revealed that higher empathy in females was associated with faster (compared with males) recognition of mildly sad faces of brief duration. We conclude that although empathic abilities were providing for advantages in recognition of all facial emotional expressions, the bias towards emotional negativity may potentially carry a risk for empathic distress. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Enhanced exchange bias in MnN/CoFe bilayers after high-temperature annealing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunz, M.; Schmalhorst, J.; Meinert, M.

    2018-05-01

    We report an exchange bias of more than 2700 Oe at room temperature in MnN/CoFe bilayers after high-temperature annealing. We studied the dependence of exchange bias on the annealing temperature for different MnN thicknesses in detail and found that samples with tMnN > 32nm show an increase of exchange bias for annealing temperatures higher than TA = 400 °C. Maximum exchange bias values exceeding 2000 Oe with reasonably small coercive fields around 600 Oe are achieved for tMnN = 42, 48 nm. The median blocking temperature of those systems is determined to be 180 °C after initial annealing at TA = 525 °C. X-ray diffraction measurements and Auger depth profiling show that the large increase of exchange bias after high-temperature annealing is accompanied by strong nitrogen diffusion into the Ta buffer layer of the stacks.

  16. Large Magnetoresistance at High Bias Voltage in Double-layer Organic Spin Valves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subedi, R. C.; Liang, S. H.; Geng, R.; Zhang, Q. T.; Lou, L.; Wang, J.; Han, X. F.; Nguyen, T. D.

    We report studies of magnetoresistance (MR) in double-layer organic spin valves (DOSV) using tris (8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum (Alq3) spacers. The device exhibits three distinct resistance levels depending on the relative magnetizations of the ferromagnetic electrodes. We observed a much weaker bias voltage dependence of MR in the device compared to that in the conventional organic spin valve (OSV). The MR magnitude reduces by the factor of two at 0.7 V bias voltage in the DOSV compared to 0.02 V in the conventional OSV. Remarkably, the MR magnitude reaches 0.3% at 6 V bias in the DOSVs, the largest MR response ever reported in OSVs at this bias. Our finding may have a significant impact on achieving high efficient bipolar OSVs strictly performed at high voltages. University of Georgia start-up fund, Ministry of Education, Singapore, National Natural Science Foundation of China.

  17. An obesogenic bias in women's spatial memory for high calorie snack food.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allan, K; Allan, J L

    2013-08-01

    To help maintain a positive energy balance in ancestral human habitats, evolution appears to have designed a functional bias in spatial memory that enhances our ability to remember the location of high-calorie foodstuffs. Here, we investigated whether this functional bias has obesogenic consequences for individuals living in a modern urban environment. Spatial memory, dietary intentions, and perceived desirability, for high-calorie snacks and lower-calorie fruits and vegetables were measured using a computer-based task in 41 women (age: 18-35, body mass index: 18.5-30.0). Using multiple linear regression, we analyzed whether enhanced spatial memory for high-calorie snacks versus fruits and vegetables predicted BMI, controlling for dietary intention strength and perceived food desirability. We observed that enhanced spatial memory for high-calorie snacks (both independently, and relative to that for fruits and vegetables), significantly predicted higher BMI. The evolved function of high-calorie bias in human spatial memory, to promote positive energy balance, would therefore appear to be intact. But our data reveal that this function may contribute to higher, less healthy BMI in individuals in whom the memory bias is most marked. Our findings reveal a novel cognitive marker of vulnerability to weight gain that, once the proximal mechanisms are understood, may offer new possibilities for weight control interventions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. A high linearity current mode multiplier/divider with a wide dynamic range

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liao Pengfei; Luo Ping; Zhang Bo; Li Zhaoji

    2012-01-01

    A high linearity current mode multiplier/divider (CMM/D) with a wide dynamic range is presented. The proposed CMM/D is based on the voltage—current characteristic of the diode, thus wide dynamic range is achieved. In addition, high linearity is achieved because high accuracy current mirrors are adopted and the output current is insensitive to the temperature and device parameters of the fabrication process. Furthermore, no extra bias current for all input signals is required and thus power saving is realized. With proper selection of establishing the input terminal, the proposed circuit can perform as a multifunction circuit to be operated as a multiplier/divider, without changing its topology. The proposed circuit is implemented in a 0.25 μm BCD process and the chip area is 0.26 × 0.24 mm 2 . The simulation and measurement results show that the maximum static linearity error is ±1.8% and the total harmonic distortion is 0.4% while the input current ranges from 0 to 200 μA. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  19. Gigantic 2D laser-induced photovoltaic effect in magnetically doped topological insulators for surface zero-bias spin-polarized current generation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shikin, A. M.; Voroshin, V. Yu; Rybkin, A. G.; Kokh, K. A.; Tereshchenko, O. E.; Ishida, Y.; Kimura, A.

    2018-01-01

    A new kind of 2D photovoltaic effect (PVE) with the generation of anomalously large surface photovoltage up to 210 meV in magnetically doped topological insulators (TIs) has been studied by the laser time-resolved pump-probe angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The PVE has maximal efficiency for TIs with high occupation of the upper Dirac cone (DC) states and the Dirac point located inside the fundamental energy gap. For TIs with low occupation of the upper DC states and the Dirac point located inside the valence band the generated surface photovoltage is significantly reduced. We have shown that the observed giant PVE is related to the laser-generated electron-hole asymmetry followed by accumulation of the photoexcited electrons at the surface. It is accompanied by the 2D relaxation process with the generation of zero-bias spin-polarized currents flowing along the topological surface states (TSSs) outside the laser beam spot. As a result, the spin-polarized current generates an effective in-plane magnetic field that is experimentally confirmed by the k II-shift of the DC relative to the bottom non-spin-polarized conduction band states. The realized 2D PVE can be considered as a source for the generation of zero-bias surface spin-polarized currents and the laser-induced local surface magnetization developed in such kind 2D TSS materials.

  20. New method for eliminating the statistical bias in highly turbulent flow measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakao, S.I.; Terao, Y.; Hirata, K.I.; Kitakyushu Industrial Research Institute, Fukuoka, Japan)

    1987-01-01

    A simple method was developed for eliminating statistical bias which can be applied to highly turbulent flows with the sparse and nonuniform seeding conditions. Unlike the method proposed so far, a weighting function was determined based on the idea that the statistical bias could be eliminated if the asymmetric form of the probability density function of the velocity data were corrected. Moreover, the data more than three standard deviations away from the mean were discarded to remove the apparent turbulent intensity resulting from noise. The present method was applied to data obtained in the wake of a block, which provided local turbulent intensities up to about 120 percent, it was found to eliminate the statistical bias with high accuracy. 9 references

  1. Theory and experimental study of biased charge collector for measuring HPIB

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He Xiaoping; Wang Haiyang; Sun Jianfeng; Yang Hailiang; Qiu Aici; Tang Junping; Li Jingya; Li Hongyu

    2004-01-01

    Structure of the biased charge collector for measuring HPIB (High-power ion beam) is introduced in this paper. The inner charge propagation process of HPIB in the biased charge collector was simulated with KARAT PIC code. The simulation results indicated that charge was neutralized but current was not neutralized in the biased charge collector. The influence of biased voltage and aperture diameter were also simulated. A -800V biased voltage can meet the requirement for measuring 500 keV HPIB, and this is consistent with the experimental results

  2. Attention bias modification training under working memory load increases the magnitude of change in attentional bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, Patrick J F; Branson, Sonya; Chen, Nigel T M; Van Bockstaele, Bram; Salemink, Elske; MacLeod, Colin; Notebaert, Lies

    2017-12-01

    Attention bias modification (ABM) procedures have shown promise as a therapeutic intervention, however current ABM procedures have proven inconsistent in their ability to reliably achieve the requisite change in attentional bias needed to produce emotional benefits. This highlights the need to better understand the precise task conditions that facilitate the intended change in attention bias in order to realise the therapeutic potential of ABM procedures. Based on the observation that change in attentional bias occurs largely outside conscious awareness, the aim of the current study was to determine if an ABM procedure delivered under conditions likely to preclude explicit awareness of the experimental contingency, via the addition of a working memory load, would contribute to greater change in attentional bias. Bias change was assessed among 122 participants in response to one of four ABM tasks given by the two experimental factors of ABM training procedure delivered either with or without working memory load, and training direction of either attend-negative or avoid-negative. Findings revealed that avoid-negative ABM procedure under working memory load resulted in significantly greater reductions in attentional bias compared to the equivalent no-load condition. The current findings will require replication with clinical samples to determine the utility of the current task for achieving emotional benefits. These present findings are consistent with the position that the addition of a working memory load may facilitate change in attentional bias in response to an ABM training procedure. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Lateral Vibration Attenuation by the Dynamic Adjustment of Bias Currents in Magnetic Suspension System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mizuno, Takeshi; Takasaki, Masaya; Ishino, Yuji

    2016-01-01

    Switching stiffness control is applied to attenuate vibration in the lateral directions in an active magnetic suspension system with electromagnets operated in differential mode. The magnetic suspension system using the attractive force between magnetized bodies is inherently unstable in the normal direction so that feedback control is necessary to achieve stable suspension. In contrast, it can be stable in the lateral directions due to the edge effects in the magnetic circuits. In several applications, such passive suspension is used in combination with the active one to reduce cost and space. However, damping in the lateral directions is generally small. As a result, induced vibrations in these directions are hardly attenuated. To suppress such vibration without any additional actuator (electromagnet), switching stiffness control is applied to an magnetic suspension system operated in the differential mode. The stiffness in the lateral direction is adjusted by varying the bias currents of an opposed pair of electromagnets located in the normal direction simultaneously according to the motion of the suspended object. When the varied bias currents are adjusted for the additive normal forces cancel each other, such control does not affect the suspension in the normal direction. The effectiveness of the proposed control methods is confirmed experimentally. (paper)

  4. High-conductance low-voltage organic thin film transistor with locally rearranged poly(3-hexylthiophene) domain by current annealing on plastic substrate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pei, Zingway; Tsai, Hsing-Wang; Lai, Hsin-Cheng

    2016-02-01

    The organic material based thin film transistors (TFTs) are attractive for flexible optoelectronics applications due to the ability of lager area fabrication by solution and low temperature process on plastic substrate. Recently, the research of organic TFT focus on low operation voltage and high output current to achieve a low power organic logic circuit for optoelectronic device,such as e-paper or OLED displayer. To obtain low voltage and high output current, high gate capacitance and high channel mobility are key factors. The well-arranged polymer chain by a high temperature postannealing, leading enhancement conductivity of polymer film was a general method. However, the thermal annealing applying heat for all device on the substrate and may not applicable to plastic substrate. Therefore, in this work, the low operation voltage and high output current of polymer TFTs was demonstrated by locally electrical bias annealing. The poly(styrene-comethyl methacrylate) (PS-r-PMMA) with ultra-thin thickness is used as gate dielectric that the thickness is controlled by thermal treatment after spin coated on organic electrode. In electrical bias-annealing process, the PS-r- PMMA is acted a heating layer. After electrical bias-annealing, the polymer TFTs obtain high channel mobility at low voltage that lead high output current by a locally annealing of P3HT film. In the future, the locally electrical biasannealing method could be applied on plastic substrate for flexible optoelectronic application.

  5. The effect of cathode bias (field effect) on the surface leakage current of CdZnTe detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolotnikov, A.E.; Hubert Chen, C.M.; Cook, W.R.; Harrison, F.A.; Kuvvetli, I.; Schindler, S.M.; Stahle, C.M.; Parker, B.H.

    2003-01-01

    Surface resistivity is an important parameter of multi-electrode CZT detectors such as coplanar-grid, strip, or pixel detectors. Low surface resistivity results in a high leakage current and affects the charge collection efficiency in the areas near contacts. Thus, it is always desirable to have the surface resistivity of the detector as high as possible. In the past the most significant efforts were concentrated to develop passivation techniques for CZT detectors. However, as we found, the field-effect caused by a bias applied on the cathode can significantly reduce the surface resistivity even though the detector surface was carefully passivated. In this paper we illustrate that the field-effect is a common feature of the CZT multi-electrode detectors, and discuss how to take advantage of this effect to improve the surface resistivity of CZT detectors

  6. Macroscopic quantum effects in the zero voltage state of the current biased Josephson junction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clarke, J.; Devoret, M.H.; Martinis, J.; Esteve, D.

    1985-05-01

    When a weak microwave current is applied to a current-biased Josephson tunnel junction in the thermal limit the escape rate from the zero voltage state is enhanced when the microwave frequency is near the plasma frequency of the junction. The resonance curve is markedly asymmetric because of the anharmonic properties of the potential well: this behavior is well explained by a computer simulation using a resistively shunted junction model. This phenomenon of resonant activation enables one to make in situ measurements of the capacitance and resistance shunting the junction, including contributions from the complex impedance presented by the current leads. For the relatively large area junctions studied in these experiments, the external capacitive loading was relatively unimportant, but the damping was entirely dominated by the external resistance

  7. Detection of defect states responsible for leakage current in ultrathin tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) films by zero-bias thermally stimulated current spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lau, W.S.; Zhong, L.; Lee, A.; See, C.H.; Han, T.; Sandler, N.P.; Chong, T.C.

    1997-01-01

    Defect states responsible for leakage current in ultrathin (physical thickness 2 O 5 ) films were measured with a novel zero-bias thermally stimulated current technique. It was found that defect states A, whose activation energy was estimated to be about 0.2 eV, can be more efficiently suppressed by using N 2 O rapid thermal annealing (RTA) instead of using O 2 RTA for postdeposition annealing. The leakage current was also smaller for samples with N 2 O RTA than those with O 2 RTA for postdeposition annealing. Hence, defect states A are quite likely to be important in causing leakage current. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  8. An investigation of tropical Atlantic bias in a high-resolution coupled regional climate model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Patricola, Christina M.; Saravanan, R.; Hsieh, Jen-Shan [Texas A and M University, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, College Station, TX (United States); Li, Mingkui; Xu, Zhao [Texas A and M University, Department of Oceanography, College Station, TX (United States); Ocean University of China, Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography of Ministry of Education, Qingdao (China); Chang, Ping [Texas A and M University, Department of Oceanography, College Station, TX (United States); Ocean University of China, Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography of Ministry of Education, Qingdao (China); Second Institute of Oceanography, State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (China)

    2012-11-15

    Coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) commonly fail to simulate the eastern equatorial Atlantic boreal summer cold tongue and produce a westerly equatorial trade wind bias. This tropical Atlantic bias problem is investigated with a high-resolution (27-km atmosphere represented by the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, 9-km ocean represented by the Regional Ocean Modeling System) coupled regional climate model. Uncoupled atmospheric simulations test climate sensitivity to cumulus, land-surface, planetary boundary layer, microphysics, and radiation parameterizations and reveal that the radiation scheme has a pronounced impact in the tropical Atlantic. The CAM radiation simulates a dry precipitation (up to -90%) and cold land-surface temperature (up to -8 K) bias over the Amazon related to an over-representation of low-level clouds and almost basin-wide westerly trade wind bias. The Rapid Radiative Transfer Model and Goddard radiation simulates doubled Amazon and Congo Basin precipitation rates and a weak eastern Atlantic trade wind bias. Season-long high-resolution coupled regional model experiments indicate that the initiation of the warm eastern equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) bias is more sensitive to the local rather than basin-wide trade wind bias and to a wet Congo Basin instead of dry Amazon - which differs from AOGCM simulations. Comparisons between coupled and uncoupled simulations suggest a regional Bjerknes feedback confined to the eastern equatorial Atlantic amplifies the initial SST, wind, and deepened thermocline bias, while barrier layer feedbacks are relatively unimportant. The SST bias in some CRCM simulations resembles the typical AOGCM bias indicating that increasing resolution is unlikely a simple solution to this problem. (orig.)

  9. Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Junwen; Milne, Kirby; Dayman, Janet; Kemps, Eva

    2018-05-23

    Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.

  10. Bias polarity-sensitive electrical failure characteristics of ZnSe nanowire in metal–semiconductor–metal nanostructure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Tan

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The effect of bias polarity on the electrical breakdown behavior of the single ZnSe nanowire (NW in the metal–semiconductor–metal (M–S–M nanostructure under high current density and high bias conditions has been studied in the present paper. The experimental results show that the failure of the ZnSe NW in M–S–M nanostructure was sensitive to bias polarity since the NW commonly collapsed at the negatively biased Au metal electrode due to high Joule heat produced in NW at the reversely biased Schottky barrier. Thus, the electrical breakdown behavior of the ZnSe NW was highly dominated by the cathode-controlled mode due to the high resistance of the depletion region of ZnSe NW at the reversely biased Schottky contact.

  11. Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Russo, Riccardo; Whittuck, Dora; Roberson, Debi; Dutton, Kevin; Georgiou, George; Fox, Elaine

    2006-05-01

    The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modified Stroop task, anxious individuals recalled more threat-related words compared to low-anxious people. This difference was significant even when controlling for the false recall of items that had not been presented during study. These results support the view put forward by Russo, Fox, Bellinger, and Nguyen-Van-Tam (2001) that mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals can be observed if the target material is encoded at a relatively shallow level. Moreover, contrary to Dowens and Calvo (2003), the current results show that the memory advantage for threat-related information in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.

  12. Transcranial direct current stimulation over the parietal cortex alters bias in item and source memory tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pergolizzi, Denise; Chua, Elizabeth F

    2016-10-01

    Neuroimaging data have shown that activity in the lateral posterior parietal cortex (PPC) correlates with item recognition and source recollection, but there is considerable debate about its specific contributions. Performance on both item and source memory tasks were compared between participants who were given bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the parietal cortex to those given prefrontal or sham tDCS. The parietal tDCS group, but not the prefrontal group, showed decreased false recognition, and less bias in item and source discrimination tasks compared to sham stimulation. These results are consistent with a causal role of the PPC in item and source memory retrieval, likely based on attentional and decision-making biases. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. A high linearity current mode second IF CMOS mixer for a DRM/DAB receiver

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Jian; Zhou Zheng; Wu Yiqiang; Wang Zhigong; Chen Jianping

    2015-01-01

    A passive current switch mixer was designed for the second IF down-conversion in a DRM/DAB receiver. The circuit consists of an input transconductance stage, a passive current switching stage, and a current amplifier stage. The input transconductance stage employs a self-biasing current reusing technique, with a resistor shunt feedback to increase the gain and output impedance. A dynamic bias technique is used in the switching stage to ensure the stability of the overdrive voltage versus the PVT variations. A current shunt feedback is introduced to the conventional low-voltage second-generation fully balanced multi-output current converter (FBMOCCII), which provides very low input impedance and high output impedance. With the circuit working in current mode, the linearity is effectively improved with low supply voltages. Especially, the transimpedance stage can be removed, which simplifies the design considerably. The design is verified with a SMIC 0.18 μm RF CMOS process. The measurement results show that the voltage conversation gain is 1.407 dB, the NF is 16.22 dB, and the IIP3 is 4.5 dBm, respectively. The current consumption is 9.30 mA with a supply voltage of 1.8 V. This exhibits a good compromise among the gain, noise, and linearity for the second IF mixer in DRM/DAB receivers. (paper)

  14. Electrophysiological and Behavioral Effects of Combined Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Alcohol Approach Bias Retraining in Hazardous Drinkers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    den Uyl, T.E.; Gladwin, T.E.; Wiers, R.W.

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Cognitive bias modification (CBM) can be used to retrain automatic approach tendencies for alcohol. We investigated whether changing cortical excitability with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could enhance CBM effects in hazardous drinkers. We also studied the underlying

  15. Tunneling effects in the current-voltage characteristics of high-efficiency GaAs solar cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kachare, R.; Anspaugh, B. E.; Garlick, G. F. J.

    1988-01-01

    Evidence is that tunneling via states in the forbidden gap is the dominant source of excess current in the dark current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of high-efficiency DMCVD grown Al(x)Ga(1-x)As/GaAs(x is equal to or greater than 0.85) solar cells. The dark forward and reverse I-V measurements were made on several solar cells, for the first time, at temperatures between 193 and 301 K. Low-voltage reverse-bias I-V data of a number of cells give a thermal activation energy for excess current of 0.026 + or - 0.005 eV, which corresponds to the carbon impurity in GaAs. However, other energy levels between 0.02 eV and 0.04 eV were observed in some cells which may correspond to impurity levels introduced by Cu, Si, Ge, or Cd. The forward-bias excess current is mainly due to carrier tunneling between localized levels created in the space-charge layer by impurities such as carbon, which are incorporated during the solar cell growth process. A model is suggested to explain the results.

  16. Measurements of the reverse current of highly irradiated silicon sensors to determine the effective energy and current related damage rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiehe, Moritz; Wonsak, S.; Kuehn, S.; Parzefall, U.; Casse, G.

    2018-01-01

    The reverse current of irradiated silicon sensors leads to self heating of the sensor and degrades the signal to noise ratio of a detector. Precise knowledge of the expected reverse current during detector operation is crucial for planning and running experiments in High Energy Physics. The dependence of the reverse current on sensor temperature and irradiation fluence is parametrized by the effective energy and the current related damage rate, respectively. In this study 18 n-in-p mini silicon strip sensors from companies Hamamatsu Photonics and Micron Semiconductor Ltd. were deployed. Measurements of the reverse current for different bias voltages were performed at temperatures of -32 ° C, -27 ° C and -23 ° C. The sensors were irradiated with reactor neutrons in Ljubljana to fluences ranging from 2 × 1014neq /cm2 to 2 × 1016neq /cm2. The measurements were performed directly after irradiation and after 10 and 30 days of room temperature annealing. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to investigate the reverse current of silicon sensors for high fluences of up to 2 × 1016neq /cm2 and compare the measurements to the parametrization models.

  17. Attentional bias to emotional stimuli is altered during moderate- but not high-intensity exercise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Qu; Smith, J Carson

    2011-12-01

    Little is known regarding how attention to emotional stimuli is affected during simultaneously performed exercise. Attentional biases to emotional face stimuli were assessed in 34 college students (17 women) using the dot-probe task during counterbalanced conditions of moderate- (heart rate at 45% peak oxygen consumption) and high-intensity exercise (heart rate at 80% peak oxygen consumption) compared with seated rest. The dot-probe task consisted of 1 emotional face (pleasant or unpleasant) paired with a neutral face for 1,000 ms; 256 trials (128 trials for each valence) were presented during each condition. Each condition lasted approximately 10 min. Participants were instructed to perform each trial of the dot-probe task as quickly and accurately as possible during the exercise and rest conditions. During moderate-intensity exercise, participants exhibited significantly greater attentional bias scores to pleasant compared with unpleasant faces (p bias scores to emotional faces did not differ at rest or during high-intensity exercise (p > .05). In addition, the attentional bias to unpleasant faces was significantly reduced during moderate-intensity exercise compared with that during rest (p emotional stimuli and away from unpleasant emotional stimuli. Future work is needed to determine whether acute exercise may be an effective treatment approach to reduce negative bias or enhance positive bias in individuals diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders, or whether attentional bias during exercise predicts adherence to exercise. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

  18. Design and simulation of self-biased circulators in the ultra high frequency band

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Jianwei; Geiler, Anton; Mistry, Perhaad; Kaeli, David R.; Harris, Vincent G.; Vittoria, Carmine

    2012-01-01

    Theoretical models were developed to design self-biased Y-junction circulators operating at ultra high frequency (UHF). The proposed circulator designs consist of insulating nanowires of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) embedded in high permittivity barium–strontium titanate (BSTO) substrates. A design with as many as 10 5 or greater wires may be considered in its entirety to determine the electromagnetic scattering S-parameters of a circulator design, thus helping to mitigate the computational limitations of the available finite element method (FEM) tools. The approach seeks to represent the nanowires and the BSTO substrate by an equivalent medium with effective properties inclusive of the average saturation magnetization, dynamic demagnetizing fields, and permittivity. The effective medium approach was validated in comparison with the FEM models. Using the proposed approach, a self-biased junction circulator consisting of YIG nanowires embedded in a BSTO substrate was designed and simulated in which the center frequency insertion loss was calculated to be as low as 0.16 dB with isolation of −42.3 dB at 1 GHz. The 20 dB bandwidth was calculated to be 50 MHz. These results suggest that practical self-biased circulators at the UHF band are feasible. - Highlights: ► Presented a self-biased Y-junction circulator topology on composite substrate with YIG nanowires and high permittivity BSTO. ► Developed an equivalent model to characterize the composite substrate. ► Designed a self-biased junction circulator consisting of YIG nanowires embedded in a BSTO substrate at 1 GHz.

  19. Attentional bias in math anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubinsten, Orly; Eidlin, Hili; Wohl, Hadas; Akibli, Orly

    2015-01-01

    Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety (MA) as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math). Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of MA and 13 with low levels of MA) were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of six types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, was presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks) that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks). Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in MA. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words). These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense MA symptoms.

  20. A machine learning model with human cognitive biases capable of learning from small and biased datasets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taniguchi, Hidetaka; Sato, Hiroshi; Shirakawa, Tomohiro

    2018-05-09

    Human learners can generalize a new concept from a small number of samples. In contrast, conventional machine learning methods require large amounts of data to address the same types of problems. Humans have cognitive biases that promote fast learning. Here, we developed a method to reduce the gap between human beings and machines in this type of inference by utilizing cognitive biases. We implemented a human cognitive model into machine learning algorithms and compared their performance with the currently most popular methods, naïve Bayes, support vector machine, neural networks, logistic regression and random forests. We focused on the task of spam classification, which has been studied for a long time in the field of machine learning and often requires a large amount of data to obtain high accuracy. Our models achieved superior performance with small and biased samples in comparison with other representative machine learning methods.

  1. Compensation techniques for operational amplifier bias current

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silva, M.S.

    1981-01-01

    Two techniques are proposed for the compensation of the input current on operational amplifiers that can be used on inverting and non-inverting configurations. A qualitative analysis of temperature drift problems is made, and as a practical application, the construction of a voltage follower for high impedance measurements is presented. (Author) [pt

  2. A Comparison of attentional biases and memory biases in social phobia and major depression

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rinck, M.; Becker, E.S.

    2005-01-01

    Cognitive processes play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depression. Current theories differ, however, in their predictions regarding the occurrence of attentional biases and memory biases in depression and anxiety. To allow for a systematic comparison of disorders

  3. Bias voltage induced resistance switching effect in single-molecule magnets’ tunneling junction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhengzhong; Jiang, Liang

    2014-09-01

    An electric-pulse-induced reversible resistance change effect in a molecular magnetic tunneling junction, consisting of a single-molecule magnet (SMM) sandwiched in one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic electrode, is theoretically investigated. By applying a time-varying bias voltage, the SMM's spin orientation can be manipulated with large bias voltage pulses. Moreover, the different magnetic configuration at high-resistance/low-resistance states can be ‘read out’ by utilizing relative low bias voltage. This device scheme can be implemented with current technologies (Khajetoorians et al 2013 Science 339 55) and has potential application in molecular spintronics and high-density nonvolatile memory devices.

  4. Bias voltage induced resistance switching effect in single-molecule magnets' tunneling junction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhengzhong; Jiang, Liang

    2014-09-12

    An electric-pulse-induced reversible resistance change effect in a molecular magnetic tunneling junction, consisting of a single-molecule magnet (SMM) sandwiched in one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic electrode, is theoretically investigated. By applying a time-varying bias voltage, the SMM's spin orientation can be manipulated with large bias voltage pulses. Moreover, the different magnetic configuration at high-resistance/low-resistance states can be 'read out' by utilizing relative low bias voltage. This device scheme can be implemented with current technologies (Khajetoorians et al 2013 Science 339 55) and has potential application in molecular spintronics and high-density nonvolatile memory devices.

  5. High current density 2D/3D MoS2/GaN Esaki tunnel diodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krishnamoorthy, Sriram; Lee, Edwin W.; Lee, Choong Hee; Zhang, Yuewei; McCulloch, William D.; Johnson, Jared M.; Hwang, Jinwoo; Wu, Yiying; Rajan, Siddharth

    2016-10-01

    The integration of two-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides with bulk semiconductors offer interesting opportunities for 2D/3D heterojunction-based device structures without any constraints of lattice matching. By exploiting the favorable band alignment at the GaN/MoS2 heterojunction, an Esaki interband tunnel diode is demonstrated by transferring large area Nb-doped, p-type MoS2 onto heavily n-doped GaN. A peak current density of 446 A/cm2 with repeatable room temperature negative differential resistance, peak to valley current ratio of 1.2, and minimal hysteresis was measured in the MoS2/GaN non-epitaxial tunnel diode. A high current density of 1 kA/cm2 was measured in the Zener mode (reverse bias) at -1 V bias. The GaN/MoS2 tunnel junction was also modeled by treating MoS2 as a bulk semiconductor, and the electrostatics at the 2D/3D interface was found to be crucial in explaining the experimentally observed device characteristics.

  6. A Systematic Review of Attention Biases in Opioid, Cannabis, Stimulant Use Disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Melvyn; Ying, Jiangbo; Wing, Tracey; Song, Guo; Fung, Daniel S S; Smith, Helen

    2018-06-01

    Background : Opiates, cannabis, and amphetamines are highly abused, and use of these substances are prevalent disorders. Psychological interventions are crucial given that they help individuals maintain abstinence following a lapse or relapse into substance use. Advances in experimental psychology have suggested that automatic attention biases might be responsible for relapse. Prior reviews have provided evidence for the presence of these biases in addictive disorders and the effectiveness of bias modification. However, the prior studies are limited, as they failed to include trials involving participants with these prevalent addictive disorders or have failed to adopt a systematic approach in evidence synthesis. Objectives : The primary aim of this current systematic review is to synthesise the current evidence for attention biases amongst opioid use, cannabis use, and stimulant use disorders. The secondary aim is to determine the efficacy of attention bias modification interventions and other addictions related outcomes. Methods : A search was conducted from November 2017 to January 2018 on PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Science Direct, Cochrane Central, and Scopus. The selection process of the articles was in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. A qualitative synthesis was undertaken. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Results : Six randomised trials were identified. The evidence synthesized from these trials have provided strong evidence that attentional biases are present in opioid and stimulant use disorders. Evidence synthesis for other secondary outcome measures could not be performed given the heterogeneity in the measures reported and the limited number of trials. The risk of bias assessment for the included trials revealed a high risk of selection and attrition bias. Conclusions : This review demonstrates the potential need for interventions targeting attention

  7. Spectral Resolution-linked Bias in Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deming, Drake; Sheppard, Kyle

    2017-05-01

    We re-visit the principles of transmission spectroscopy for transiting extrasolar planets, focusing on the overlap between the planetary spectrum and the illuminating stellar spectrum. Virtually all current models of exoplanetary transmission spectra utilize an approximation that is inaccurate when the spectrum of the illuminating star has a complex line structure, such as molecular bands in M-dwarf spectra. In those cases, it is desirable to model the observations using a coupled stellar-planetary radiative transfer model calculated at high spectral resolving power, followed by convolution to the observed resolution. Not consistently accounting for overlap of stellar M-dwarf and planetary lines at high spectral resolution can bias the modeled amplitude of the exoplanetary transmission spectrum, producing modeled absorption that is too strong. We illustrate this bias using the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1b, as observed using Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3. The bias in this case is about 250 ppm, 12% of the modeled transit absorption. Transit spectroscopy using JWST will have access to longer wavelengths where the water bands are intrinsically stronger, and the observed signal-to-noise ratios will be higher than currently possible. We therefore expect that this resolution-linked bias will be especially important for future JWST observations of TESS-discovered super-Earths and mini-Neptunes transiting M-dwarfs.

  8. Spectral Resolution-linked Bias in Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deming, Drake; Sheppard, Kyle [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

    2017-05-20

    We re-visit the principles of transmission spectroscopy for transiting extrasolar planets, focusing on the overlap between the planetary spectrum and the illuminating stellar spectrum. Virtually all current models of exoplanetary transmission spectra utilize an approximation that is inaccurate when the spectrum of the illuminating star has a complex line structure, such as molecular bands in M-dwarf spectra. In those cases, it is desirable to model the observations using a coupled stellar–planetary radiative transfer model calculated at high spectral resolving power, followed by convolution to the observed resolution. Not consistently accounting for overlap of stellar M-dwarf and planetary lines at high spectral resolution can bias the modeled amplitude of the exoplanetary transmission spectrum, producing modeled absorption that is too strong. We illustrate this bias using the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1b, as observed using Hubble Space Telescope /WFC3. The bias in this case is about 250 ppm, 12% of the modeled transit absorption. Transit spectroscopy using JWST will have access to longer wavelengths where the water bands are intrinsically stronger, and the observed signal-to-noise ratios will be higher than currently possible. We therefore expect that this resolution-linked bias will be especially important for future JWST observations of TESS-discovered super-Earths and mini-Neptunes transiting M-dwarfs.

  9. Spectral Resolution-linked Bias in Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deming, Drake; Sheppard, Kyle

    2017-01-01

    We re-visit the principles of transmission spectroscopy for transiting extrasolar planets, focusing on the overlap between the planetary spectrum and the illuminating stellar spectrum. Virtually all current models of exoplanetary transmission spectra utilize an approximation that is inaccurate when the spectrum of the illuminating star has a complex line structure, such as molecular bands in M-dwarf spectra. In those cases, it is desirable to model the observations using a coupled stellar–planetary radiative transfer model calculated at high spectral resolving power, followed by convolution to the observed resolution. Not consistently accounting for overlap of stellar M-dwarf and planetary lines at high spectral resolution can bias the modeled amplitude of the exoplanetary transmission spectrum, producing modeled absorption that is too strong. We illustrate this bias using the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1b, as observed using Hubble Space Telescope /WFC3. The bias in this case is about 250 ppm, 12% of the modeled transit absorption. Transit spectroscopy using JWST will have access to longer wavelengths where the water bands are intrinsically stronger, and the observed signal-to-noise ratios will be higher than currently possible. We therefore expect that this resolution-linked bias will be especially important for future JWST observations of TESS-discovered super-Earths and mini-Neptunes transiting M-dwarfs.

  10. Cognitive Biases for Emotional Faces in High- and Low-Trait Depressive Participants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Hsing Hsieh

    2004-10-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the association between trait depression and information-processing biases. Thirty participants were divided into high- and low-trait depressive groups based on the median of their depressive subscale scores according to the Basic Personality Inventory. Information-processing biases were measured using a deployment-of-attention task (DOAT and a recognition memory task (RMT. For the DOAT, participants saw one emotional face paired with a neutral face of the same person, and then were forced to choose on which face the color patch had first occurred. The percentage of participants' choices favoring the happy, angry, or sad faces represented the selective attentional bias score for each emotion, respectively. For the RMT, participants rated different types of emotional faces and subsequently discriminated old faces from new faces. The memory strength for each type of face was calculated from hit and false-positive rates, based on the signal detection theory. Compared with the low-trait depressive group, the high-trait depressive group showed a negative cognitive style. This was an enhanced recognition memory for sad faces and a weakened inhibition of attending to sad faces, suggesting that those with high depressive trait may be vulnerable to interpersonal withdrawal.

  11. Thermally stimulated current method applied to highly irradiated silicon diodes

    CERN Document Server

    Pintilie, I; Pintilie, I; Moll, Michael; Fretwurst, E; Lindström, G

    2002-01-01

    We propose an improved method for the analysis of Thermally Stimulated Currents (TSC) measured on highly irradiated silicon diodes. The proposed TSC formula for the evaluation of a set of TSC spectra obtained with different reverse biases leads not only to the concentration of electron and hole traps visible in the spectra but also gives an estimation for the concentration of defects which not give rise to a peak in the 30-220 K TSC temperature range (very shallow or very deep levels). The method is applied to a diode irradiated with a neutron fluence of phi sub n =1.82x10 sup 1 sup 3 n/cm sup 2.

  12. Sex Bias in Georgia High School Economics Textbooks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blankenship, Glen; Hahn, Carole L.

    1982-01-01

    Analyzes 17 secondary level economics textbooks for sex bias. All of the texts reviewed are on Georgia's approved textbook list. Without exception, each of the texts is guilty of sex bias, although to varying degrees. The method used in analyzing the texts is explained. (RM)

  13. Biasing vector network analyzers using variable frequency and amplitude signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobles, J. E.; Zagorodnii, V.; Hutchison, A.; Celinski, Z.

    2016-08-01

    We report the development of a test setup designed to provide a variable frequency biasing signal to a vector network analyzer (VNA). The test setup is currently used for the testing of liquid crystal (LC) based devices in the microwave region. The use of an AC bias for LC based devices minimizes the negative effects associated with ionic impurities in the media encountered with DC biasing. The test setup utilizes bias tees on the VNA test station to inject the bias signal. The square wave biasing signal is variable from 0.5 to 36.0 V peak-to-peak (VPP) with a frequency range of DC to 10 kHz. The test setup protects the VNA from transient processes, voltage spikes, and high-frequency leakage. Additionally, the signals to the VNA are fused to ½ amp and clipped to a maximum of 36 VPP based on bias tee limitations. This setup allows us to measure S-parameters as a function of both the voltage and the frequency of the applied bias signal.

  14. Attentional bias toward high-calorie food-cues and trait motor impulsivity interactively predict weight gain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adrian Meule

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Strong bottom-up impulses and weak top-down control may interactively lead to overeating and, consequently, weight gain. In the present study, female university freshmen were tested at the start of the first semester and again at the start of the second semester. Attentional bias toward high- or low-calorie food-cues was assessed using a dot-probe paradigm and participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale . Attentional bias and motor impulsivity interactively predicted change in body mass index: motor impulsivity positively predicted weight gain only when participants showed an attentional bias toward high-calorie food-cues. Attentional and non-planning impulsivity were unrelated to weight change. Results support findings showing that weight gain is prospectively predicted by a combination of weak top-down control (i.e. high impulsivity and strong bottom-up impulses (i.e. high automatic motivational drive toward high-calorie food stimuli. They also highlight the fact that only specific aspects of impulsivity are relevant in eating and weight regulation.

  15. Attentional Bias in Math Anxiety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Orly eRubinsten

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math. Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of math anxiety and 13 with low levels of math anxiety were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of 6 types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, were presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks. Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in math anxiety. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words. These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense math anxiety symptoms.

  16. Categorizing Biases in High-Confidence High-Throughput Protein-Protein Interaction Data Sets*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Xueping; Ivanic, Joseph; Memišević, Vesna; Wallqvist, Anders; Reifman, Jaques

    2011-01-01

    We characterized and evaluated the functional attributes of three yeast high-confidence protein-protein interaction data sets derived from affinity purification/mass spectrometry, protein-fragment complementation assay, and yeast two-hybrid experiments. The interacting proteins retrieved from these data sets formed distinct, partially overlapping sets with different protein-protein interaction characteristics. These differences were primarily a function of the deployed experimental technologies used to recover these interactions. This affected the total coverage of interactions and was especially evident in the recovery of interactions among different functional classes of proteins. We found that the interaction data obtained by the yeast two-hybrid method was the least biased toward any particular functional characterization. In contrast, interacting proteins in the affinity purification/mass spectrometry and protein-fragment complementation assay data sets were over- and under-represented among distinct and different functional categories. We delineated how these differences affected protein complex organization in the network of interactions, in particular for strongly interacting complexes (e.g. RNA and protein synthesis) versus weak and transient interacting complexes (e.g. protein transport). We quantified methodological differences in detecting protein interactions from larger protein complexes, in the correlation of protein abundance among interacting proteins, and in their connectivity of essential proteins. In the latter case, we showed that minimizing inherent methodology biases removed many of the ambiguous conclusions about protein essentiality and protein connectivity. We used these findings to rationalize how biological insights obtained by analyzing data sets originating from different sources sometimes do not agree or may even contradict each other. An important corollary of this work was that discrepancies in biological insights did not

  17. Stimulus-Driven Attention, Threat Bias, and Sad Bias in Youth with a History of an Anxiety Disorder or Depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sylvester, Chad M; Hudziak, James J; Gaffrey, Michael S; Barch, Deanna M; Luby, Joan L

    2016-02-01

    Attention biases towards threatening and sad stimuli are associated with pediatric anxiety and depression, respectively. The basic cognitive mechanisms associated with attention biases in youth, however, remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that threat bias (selective attention for threatening versus neutral stimuli) but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. We collected measures of stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, sad bias, and current clinical symptoms in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder and/or depression (ANX/DEP; n = 40) as well as healthy controls (HC; n = 33). Stimulus-driven attention was measured with a non-emotional spatial orienting task, while threat bias and sad bias were measured at a short time interval (150 ms) with a spatial orienting task using emotional faces and at a longer time interval (500 ms) using a dot-probe task. In ANX/DEP but not HC, early attention bias towards threat was negatively correlated with later attention bias to threat, suggesting that early threat vigilance was associated with later threat avoidance. Across all subjects, stimulus-driven orienting was not correlated with early threat bias but was negatively correlated with later threat bias, indicating that rapid stimulus-driven orienting is linked to later threat avoidance. No parallel relationships were detected for sad bias. Current symptoms of depression but not anxiety were related to decreased stimulus-driven attention. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that threat bias but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. These results inform the design of attention bias modification programs that aim to reverse threat biases and reduce symptoms associated with pediatric anxiety and depression.

  18. Stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, and sad bias in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder or depression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sylvester, Chad M.; Hudziak, James J.; Gaffrey, Michael S.; Barch, Deanna M.; Luby, Joan L.

    2015-01-01

    Attention biases towards threatening and sad stimuli are associated with pediatric anxiety and depression, respectively. The basic cognitive mechanisms associated with attention biases in youth, however, remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that threat bias (selective attention for threatening versus neutral stimuli) but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. We collected measures of stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, sad bias, and current clinical symptoms in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder and/or depression (ANX/DEP; n=40) as well as healthy controls (HC; n=33). Stimulus-driven attention was measured with a non-emotional spatial orienting task, while threat bias and sad bias were measured at a short time interval (150 ms) with a spatial orienting task using emotional faces and at a longer time interval (500 ms) using a dot-probe task. In ANX/DEP but not HC, early attention bias towards threat was negatively correlated with later attention bias to threat, suggesting that early threat vigilance was associated with later threat avoidance. Across all subjects, stimulus-driven orienting was not correlated with early threat bias but was negatively correlated with later threat bias, indicating that rapid stimulus-driven orienting is linked to later threat avoidance. No parallel relationships were detected for sad bias. Current symptoms of depression but not anxiety were related to decreased stimulus-driven attention. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that threat bias but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. These results inform the design of attention bias modification programs that aim to reverse threat biases and reduce symptoms associated with pediatric anxiety and depression. PMID:25702927

  19. Adjustable direct current and pulsed circuit fault current limiter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boenig, Heinrich J.; Schillig, Josef B.

    2003-09-23

    A fault current limiting system for direct current circuits and for pulsed power circuit. In the circuits, a current source biases a diode that is in series with the circuits' transmission line. If fault current in a circuit exceeds current from the current source biasing the diode open, the diode will cease conducting and route the fault current through the current source and an inductor. This limits the rate of rise and the peak value of the fault current.

  20. High current ion sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, I.G.

    1989-06-01

    The concept of high current ion source is both relative and evolutionary. Within the domain of one particular kind of ion source technology a current of microamperers might be 'high', while in another area a current of 10 Amperes could 'low'. Even within the domain of a single ion source type, what is considered high current performance today is routinely eclipsed by better performance and higher current output within a short period of time. Within their fields of application, there is a large number of kinds of ion sources that can justifiably be called high current. Thus, as a very limited example only, PIGs, Freemen sources, ECR sources, duoplasmatrons, field emission sources, and a great many more all have their high current variants. High current ion beams of gaseous and metallic species can be generated in a number of different ways. Ion sources of the kind developed at various laboratories around the world for the production of intense neutral beams for controlled fusion experiments are used to form large area proton deuteron beams of may tens of Amperes, and this technology can be used for other applications also. There has been significant progress in recent years in the use of microwave ion sources for high current ion beam generation, and this method is likely to find wide application in various different field application. Finally, high current beams of metal ions can be produced using metal vapor vacuum arc ion source technology. After a brief consideration of high current ion source design concepts, these three particular methods are reviewed in this paper

  1. Attentional bias in high math-anxious individuals: evidence from an emotional Stroop task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena; Núñez-Peña, Maria Isabel; Colomé, Àngels

    2015-01-01

    Attentional bias toward threatening or emotional information is considered a cognitive marker of anxiety, and it has been described in various clinical and subclinical populations. This study used an emotional Stroop task to investigate whether math anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias toward math-related words. Two previous studies failed to observe such an effect in math-anxious individuals, although the authors acknowledged certain methodological limitations that the present study seeks to avoid. Twenty high math-anxious (HMA) and 20 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals were presented with an emotional Stroop task including math-related and neutral words. Participants in the two groups did not differ in trait anxiety or depression. We found that the HMA group showed slower response times to math-related words than to neutral words, as well as a greater attentional bias (math-related – neutral difference score) than the LMA one, which constitutes the first demonstration of an attentional bias toward math-related words in HMA individuals. PMID:26539137

  2. Attentional bias in high math-anxious individuals: evidence from an emotional Stroop task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MACARENA eSUÁREZ PELLICIONI

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Attentional bias towards threatening or emotional information is considered a cognitive marker of anxiety, and it has been described in various clinical and subclinical populations. This study used an emotional Stroop task to investigate whether math anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias towards math-related words. Two previous studies failed to observe such an effect in math-anxious individuals, although the authors acknowledged certain methodological limitations that the present study seeks to avoid. Twenty high math-anxious (HMA and 20 low math-anxious (LMA individuals were presented with an emotional Stroop task including math-related and neutral words. Participants in the two groups did not differ in trait anxiety or depression. We found that the HMA group showed slower response times to math-related words than to neutral words, as well as a greater attentional bias (math-related – neutral difference score than the LMA one, which constitutes the first demonstration of an attentional bias towards math-related words in HMA individuals.

  3. Beyond assembly bias: exploring secondary halo biases for cluster-size haloes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Yao-Yuan; Zentner, Andrew R.; Wechsler, Risa H.

    2018-03-01

    Secondary halo bias, commonly known as `assembly bias', is the dependence of halo clustering on a halo property other than mass. This prediction of the Λ Cold Dark Matter cosmology is essential to modelling the galaxy distribution to high precision and interpreting clustering measurements. As the name suggests, different manifestations of secondary halo bias have been thought to originate from halo assembly histories. We show conclusively that this is incorrect for cluster-size haloes. We present an up-to-date summary of secondary halo biases of high-mass haloes due to various halo properties including concentration, spin, several proxies of assembly history, and subhalo properties. While concentration, spin, and the abundance and radial distribution of subhaloes exhibit significant secondary biases, properties that directly quantify halo assembly history do not. In fact, the entire assembly histories of haloes in pairs are nearly identical to those of isolated haloes. In general, a global correlation between two halo properties does not predict whether or not these two properties exhibit similar secondary biases. For example, assembly history and concentration (or subhalo abundance) are correlated for both paired and isolated haloes, but follow slightly different conditional distributions in these two cases. This results in a secondary halo bias due to concentration (or subhalo abundance), despite the lack of assembly bias in the strict sense for cluster-size haloes. Due to this complexity, caution must be exercised in using any one halo property as a proxy to study the secondary bias due to another property.

  4. Current-voltage characteristics of quantum-point contacts in the closed-channel regime: Transforming the bias voltage into an energy scale

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gloos, K.; Utko, P.; Aagesen, M.

    2006-01-01

    We investigate the I(V) characteristics (current versus bias voltage) of side-gated quantum-point contacts, defined in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs heterostructures. These point contacts are operated in the closed-channel regime, that is, at fixed gate voltages below zero-bias pinch-off for conductance. Our....... Such a built-in energy-voltage calibration allows us to distinguish between the different contributions to the electron transport across the pinched-off contact due to thermal activation or quantum tunneling. The first involves the height of the barrier, and the latter also its length. In the model that we...

  5. Generation of pure spin currents via spin Seebeck effect in self-biased hexagonal ferrite thin films

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Peng; Ellsworth, David; Chang, Houchen; Janantha, Praveen; Richardson, Daniel; Phillips, Preston; Vijayasarathy, Tarah; Wu, Mingzhong, E-mail: mwu@lamar.colostate.edu [Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 (United States); Shah, Faisal [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 (United States)

    2014-12-15

    Light-induced generation of pure spin currents in a Pt(2.5 nm)/BaFe{sub 12}O{sub 19}(1.2 μm)/sapphire(0.5 mm) structure is reported. The BaFe{sub 12}O{sub 19} film had strong in-plane uniaxial anisotropy and was therefore self-biased. Upon exposure to light, a temperature difference (ΔT) was established across the BaFe{sub 12}O{sub 19} thickness that gave rise to a pure spin current in the Pt via the spin Seebeck effect. Via the inverse spin Hall effect, the spin current produced an electric voltage across one of the Pt lateral dimensions. The voltage varied with time in the same manner as ΔT and flipped its sign when the magnetization in BaFe{sub 12}O{sub 19} was reversed.

  6. High current, high bandwidth laser diode current driver

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copeland, David J.; Zimmerman, Robert K., Jr.

    1991-01-01

    A laser diode current driver has been developed for free space laser communications. The driver provides 300 mA peak modulation current and exhibits an optical risetime of less than 400 ps. The current and optical pulses are well behaved and show minimal ringing. The driver is well suited for QPPM modulation at data rates up to 440 Mbit/s. Much previous work has championed current steering circuits; in contrast, the present driver is a single-ended on/off switch. This results in twice the power efficiency as a current steering driver. The driver electrical efficiency for QPPM data is 34 percent. The high speed switch is realized with a Ku-band GaAsFET transistor, with a suitable pre-drive circuit, on a hybrid microcircuit adjacent to the laser diode.

  7. Improvement of the detection limits in radio-frequency-powered glow discharge optical emission spectrometry associated with bias-current conduction method; Jiko bias denryu donyuho ni yoru koshuha glow hoden hakko bunseki ni okeru kenshutsu genkai no kaizen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wagatsuma, K. [Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan). Research Institute for Materials

    1999-01-01

    A d.c. bias current driven by the self-bias voltage which is conducted through the r.f.-powered glow discharge plasma varies the emission characteristics drastically, leading to improvement of the detection power in the optical emission spectrometry. By conducting the bias currents of 20-30 mA, the emission intensities of the atomic resonance lines were 10-20 times larger than those obtained with conventional r.t.- powered plasmas. The detection limits for determination of alloyed elements in the re-based binary alloy samples were estimated to be l.6 x 10{sup -3}% Cr for CrI 425.43nm, 7 x 10{sup -4}% Mn for MnI 403.10nm, 1.9>10{sup -3}% Cu for CuI 327.40nm, 1.1 x 10{sup -3}% Al for AlI 396.16nm, and 6.6 x 10{sup -3}% Ni for NiI 352.45 nm. (author)

  8. Gender bias affects forests worldwide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marlène Elias; Susan S Hummel; Bimbika S Basnett; Carol J.P. Colfer

    2017-01-01

    Gender biases persist in forestry research and practice. These biases result in reduced scientific rigor and inequitable, ineffective, and less efficient policies, programs, and interventions. Drawing from a two-volume collection of current and classic analyses on gender in forests, we outline five persistent and inter-related themes: gendered governance, tree tenure,...

  9. Unraveling Gender Bias from Student Evaluations of their High School Physics Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazari, Zahra; Potvin, Geoff; Tai, Robert; Sadler, Philip

    2009-05-01

    In this talk, the evaluation of high school physics, chemistry, and biology teachers by their students is examined according to the gender of the student and the gender of the teacher. Female teachers are rated significantly lower than male teachers by male students in all three disciplines, while female students under-rate female teachers only in physics. Interestingly, physics is also the field that suffers the greatest lack of females and has been criticized most for its androcentric culture. The gender bias in teacher ratings persists even after accounting for academic performance, classroom experiences, and family support. Further, male and female teachers in each discipline appear equally effective at preparing their students for future science study in college, suggesting that students have a discipline-specific gender bias. Such a bias may negatively impact female students and contribute to the loss of females in STEM fields.

  10. Bias versus bias: harnessing hindsight to reveal paranormal belief change beyond demand characteristics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Michael J; Core, Tammy J; Hunt, R Reed

    2010-04-01

    Psychological change is difficult to assess, in part because self-reported beliefs and attitudes may be biased or distorted. The present study probed belief change, in an educational context, by using the hindsight bias to counter another bias that generally plagues assessment of subjective change. Although research has indicated that skepticism courses reduce paranormal beliefs, those findings may reflect demand characteristics (biases toward desired, skeptical responses). Our hindsight-bias procedure circumvented demand by asking students, following semester-long skepticism (and control) courses, to recall their precourse levels of paranormal belief. People typically remember themselves as previously thinking, believing, and acting as they do now, so current skepticism should provoke false recollections of previous skepticism. Given true belief change, therefore, skepticism students should have remembered themselves as having been more skeptical than they were. They did, at least about paranormal topics that were covered most extensively in the course. Our findings thus show hindsight to be useful in evaluating cognitive change beyond demand characteristics.

  11. Tunable reverse-biased graphene/silicon heterojunction Schottky diode sensor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Amol; Uddin, Ahsan; Sudarshan, Tangali; Koley, Goutam

    2014-04-24

    A new chemical sensor based on reverse-biased graphene/Si heterojunction diode has been developed that exhibits extremely high bias-dependent molecular detection sensitivity and low operating power. The device takes advantage of graphene's atomically thin nature, which enables molecular adsorption on its surface to directly alter graphene/Si interface barrier height, thus affecting the junction current exponentially when operated in reverse bias and resulting in ultrahigh sensitivity. By operating the device in reverse bias, the work function of graphene, and hence the barrier height at the graphene/Si heterointerface, can be controlled by the bias magnitude, leading to a wide tunability of the molecular detection sensitivity. Such sensitivity control is also possible by carefully selecting the graphene/Si heterojunction Schottky barrier height. Compared to a conventional graphene amperometric sensor fabricated on the same chip, the proposed sensor demonstrated 13 times higher sensitivity for NO₂ and 3 times higher for NH₃ in ambient conditions, while consuming ∼500 times less power for same magnitude of applied voltage bias. The sensing mechanism based on heterojunction Schottky barrier height change has been confirmed using capacitance-voltage measurements. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. Attention bias modification for anxiety and phobias: current status and future directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuckertz, Jennie M; Amir, Nader

    2015-02-01

    Attention bias modification (ABM) was introduced over a decade ago as a computerized method of manipulating attentional bias and has been followed by intense interest in applying ABM for clinical purposes. While meta-analyses support ABM as a method of modifying attentional biases and reducing anxiety symptoms, there have been notable discrepancies in findings published within the last several years. In this review, we comment on recent research that may help explain some of the inconsistencies across ABM studies. More relevant to the future of ABM research, we highlight areas in which continuing research is needed. We suggest that ABM appears to be a promising treatment for anxiety disorders, but relative to other interventions, ABM is in its infancy. Thus, research is needed in order to improve ABM as a clinical treatment and advance the psychological science of ABM.

  13. Radio-frequency properties of stacked long Josephson junctions with nonuniform bias current distribution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Filatrella, G; Pedersen, Niels Falsig

    1999-01-01

    We have numerically investigated the behavior of stacks of long Josephson junctions considering a nonuniform bias profile. In the presence of a microwave field the nonuniform bias, which favors the formation of fluxons, can give rise to a change of the sequence of radio-frequency induced steps...

  14. Rf-biasing of highly idealized plasmas

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westermann, R.H.J.; Blauw, M.A.; Goedheer, W.J.; Sanden, van de M.C.M.; Schmidt, J.; Simek, M.; Pekarek, S.; Prukner, V.

    2007-01-01

    Remote plasmas, which are subjected to a radio-frequency (RF) biased surface, have been investigated theoretically and experimentally for decades. The relation between the complex power (DC) voltage characteristics, the ion energy distribution and control losses of the ion bombardment are of

  15. Association between mean and interannual equatorial Indian Ocean subsurface temperature bias in a coupled model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srinivas, G.; Chowdary, Jasti S.; Gnanaseelan, C.; Prasad, K. V. S. R.; Karmakar, Ananya; Parekh, Anant

    2018-03-01

    In the present study the association between mean and interannual subsurface temperature bias over the equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO) is investigated during boreal summer (June through September; JJAS) in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System (CFSv2) hindcast. Anomalously high subsurface warm bias (greater than 3 °C) over the eastern EIO (EEIO) region is noted in CFSv2 during summer, which is higher compared to other parts of the tropical Indian Ocean. Prominent eastward current bias in the upper 100 m over the EIO region induced by anomalous westerly winds is primarily responsible for subsurface temperature bias. The eastward currents transport warm water to the EEIO and is pushed down to subsurface due to downwelling. Thus biases in both horizontal and vertical currents over the EIO region support subsurface warm bias. The evolution of systematic subsurface warm bias in the model shows strong interannual variability. These maximum subsurface warming episodes over the EEIO are mainly associated with La Niña like forcing. Strong convergence of low level winds over the EEIO and Maritime continent enhanced the westerly wind bias over the EIO during maximum warming years. This low level convergence of wind is induced by the bias in the gradient in the mean sea level pressure with positive bias over western EIO and negative bias over EEIO and parts of western Pacific. Consequently, changes in the atmospheric circulation associated with La Niña like conditions affected the ocean dynamics by modulating the current bias thereby enhancing the subsurface warm bias over the EEIO. It is identified that EEIO subsurface warming is stronger when La Niña co-occurred with negative Indian Ocean Dipole events as compared to La Niña only years in the model. Ocean general circulation model (OGCM) experiments forced with CFSv2 winds clearly support our hypothesis that ocean dynamics influenced by westerly winds bias is primarily

  16. Effects of interpretation training on hostile attribution bias and reactivity to interpersonal insult.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Kirsten A; Cougle, Jesse R

    2013-09-01

    Research suggests that individuals high in anger have a bias for attributing hostile intentions to ambiguous situations. The current study tested whether this interpretation bias can be altered to influence anger reactivity to an interpersonal insult using a single-session cognitive bias modification program. One hundred thirty-five undergraduate students were randomized to receive positive training, negative training, or a control condition. Anger reactivity to insult was then assessed. Positive training led to significantly greater increases in positive interpretation bias relative to the negative group, though these increases were only marginally greater than the control group. Negative training led to increased negative interpretation bias relative to other groups. During the insult, participants in the positive condition reported less anger than those in the control condition. Observers rated participants in the positive condition as less irritated than those in the negative condition and more amused than the other two conditions. Though mediation of effects via bias modification was not demonstrated, among the positive condition posttraining interpretation bias was correlated with self-reported anger, suggesting that positive training reduced anger reactivity by influencing interpretation biases. Findings suggest that positive interpretation training may be a promising treatment for reducing anger. However, the current study was conducted with a non-treatment-seeking student sample; further research with a treatment-seeking sample with problematic anger is necessary. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Probing Biased Signaling in Chemokine Receptors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amarandi, Roxana Maria; Hjortø, Gertrud Malene; Rosenkilde, Mette Marie

    2016-01-01

    The chemokine system mediates leukocyte migration during homeostatic and inflammatory processes. Traditionally, it is described as redundant and promiscuous, with a single chemokine ligand binding to different receptors and a single receptor having several ligands. Signaling of chemokine receptors...... of others has been termed signaling bias and can accordingly be grouped into ligand bias, receptor bias, and tissue bias. Bias has so far been broadly overlooked in the process of drug development. The low number of currently approved drugs targeting the chemokine system, as well as the broad range...... of failed clinical trials, reflects the need for a better understanding of the chemokine system. Thus, understanding the character, direction, and consequence of biased signaling in the chemokine system may aid the development of new therapeutics. This review describes experiments to assess G protein...

  18. Cryogenic high current discharges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meierovich, B.E.

    1994-01-01

    Z-pinches formed from frozen deuterium fibers by a rapidly rising current have enhanced stability and high neutron yield. The efforts to understand the enhanced stability and neutron yield on the basis of classical picture of Bennett equilibrium of the current channel has not given satisfactory results. The traditional approach does not take into account the essential difference between the frozen deuterium fiber Z-pinches and the usual Z-pinches such as exploding wires or classical gas-puffed Z-pinches. The very low temperature of the fiber atoms (10 K), together with the rapidly rising current, result in the coexistence of a high current channel with unionized fiber atoms for a substantial period of time. This phenomena lasts during the risetime. This approach takes into account the difference of the breakdown in a dielectric deuterium fiber and the breakdown in a metallic wire. This difference is essential to the understanding of specific features of cryogenic high current discharges. Z-pinches in frozen deuterium fibers should be considered as a qualitatively new phenomenon on the boundary of cryogenic and high current physics. It is a start of a new branch in plasma physics: the physics of cryogenic high current discharges

  19. Long-term biases in geomagnetic K and aa indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, J.J.

    2011-01-01

    Analysis is made of the geomagnetic-activity aa index and its source K-index data from groups of ground-based observatories in Britain, and Australia, 1868.0-2009.0, solar cycles 11-23. The K data show persistent biases, especially for high (low) K-activity levels at British (Australian) observatories. From examination of multiple subsets of the K data we infer that the biases are not predominantly the result of changes in observatory location, localized induced magnetotelluric currents, changes in magnetometer technology, or the modernization of K-value estimation methods. Instead, the biases appear to be artifacts of the latitude-dependent scaling used to assign K values to particular local levels of geomagnetic activity. The biases are not effectively removed by weighting factors used to estimate aa. We show that long-term averages of the aa index, such as annual averages, are dominated by medium-level geomagnetic activity levels having K values of 3 and 4. ?? 2011 Author(s).

  20. Long-term biases in geomagnetic K and aa indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. J. Love

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Analysis is made of the geomagnetic-activity aa index and its source K-index data from groups of ground-based observatories in Britain, and Australia, 1868.0–2009.0, solar cycles 11–23. The K data show persistent biases, especially for high (low K-activity levels at British (Australian observatories. From examination of multiple subsets of the K data we infer that the biases are not predominantly the result of changes in observatory location, localized induced magnetotelluric currents, changes in magnetometer technology, or the modernization of K-value estimation methods. Instead, the biases appear to be artifacts of the latitude-dependent scaling used to assign K values to particular local levels of geomagnetic activity. The biases are not effectively removed by weighting factors used to estimate aa. We show that long-term averages of the aa index, such as annual averages, are dominated by medium-level geomagnetic activity levels having K values of 3 and 4.

  1. Self-control predicts attentional bias assessed by online shopping-related Stroop in high online shopping addiction tendency college students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Zhaocai; Zhao, Xiuxin; Li, Cancan

    2017-05-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the relationships of personality types (i.e., self-control, BAS/BIS) and online shopping addiction (OSA) behavior and to investigate whether high-OSA tendency individuals display attentional biases toward online shopping-related (OS-related) stimuli as well as the links between attentional bias and personality types. The study included 98 college students divided into three groups (i.e., high-, medium- and low-OSA) according to their OSA behavior. The personality types (i.e., self-control, BAS/BIS) and OSA behavior were investigated by questionnaires. The attentional bias was evaluated by the OS-related Stroop and dot-probe task (DPT) paradigms. OSA was positively predicted by time spent on online shopping per day and average consumption for online shopping monthly, and negatively by self-control. High-OSA individuals displayed significant attentional biases toward OS-related stimuli in the Stroop, but not DPT paradigm. Moreover, the attentional bias toward OSA-related stimuli in high-OSA individuals was negatively correlated with self-control. These findings demonstrated the critical role of self-control in OSA behavior and attentional bias to OS-related stimuli in high-OSA individuals, indicating that more importance should be attached to self-control for the clinical intervention of online shopping addiction in future studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Bias against research on gender bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cislak, Aleksandra; Formanowicz, Magdalena; Saguy, Tamar

    2018-01-01

    The bias against women in academia is a documented phenomenon that has had detrimental consequences, not only for women, but also for the quality of science. First, gender bias in academia affects female scientists, resulting in their underrepresentation in academic institutions, particularly in higher ranks. The second type of gender bias in science relates to some findings applying only to male participants, which produces biased knowledge. Here, we identify a third potentially powerful source of gender bias in academia: the bias against research on gender bias. In a bibliometric investigation covering a broad range of social sciences, we analyzed published articles on gender bias and race bias and established that articles on gender bias are funded less often and published in journals with a lower Impact Factor than articles on comparable instances of social discrimination. This result suggests the possibility of an underappreciation of the phenomenon of gender bias and related research within the academic community. Addressing this meta-bias is crucial for the further examination of gender inequality, which severely affects many women across the world.

  3. High-voltage high-current triggering vacuum switch

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alferov, D.F.; Bunin, R.A.; Evsin, D.V.; Sidorov, V.A.

    2012-01-01

    Experimental investigations of switching and breaking capacities of the new high current triggered vacuum switch (TVS) are carried out at various parameters of discharge current. It has been shown that the high current triggered vacuum switch TVS can switch repeatedly a current from units up to ten kiloampers with duration up to ten millisecond [ru

  4. Scale-dependent bias from the reconstruction of non-Gaussian distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chongchitnan, Sirichai; Silk, Joseph

    2011-01-01

    Primordial non-Gaussianity introduces a scale-dependent variation in the clustering of density peaks corresponding to rare objects. This variation, parametrized by the bias, is investigated on scales where a linear perturbation theory is sufficiently accurate. The bias is obtained directly in real space by comparing the one- and two-point probability distributions of density fluctuations. We show that these distributions can be reconstructed using a bivariate Edgeworth series, presented here up to an arbitrarily high order. The Edgeworth formalism is shown to be well-suited for ''local'' cubic-order non-Gaussianity parametrized by g NL . We show that a strong scale dependence in the bias can be produced by g NL of order 10 5 , consistent with cosmic microwave background constraints. On a separation length of ∼100 Mpc, current constraints on g NL still allow the bias for the most massive clusters to be enhanced by 20-30% of the Gaussian value. We further examine the bias as a function of mass scale, and also explore the relationship between the clustering and the abundance of massive clusters in the presence of g NL . We explain why the Edgeworth formalism, though technically challenging, is a very powerful technique for constraining high-order non-Gaussianity with large-scale structures.

  5. Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification Training via Smartphones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ranming Yang

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three different types of training programmes (cognitive bias modification-attention, CBM-A; cognitive bias modification-interpretation, CBM-I; attention and interpretation modification, AIM administered via smart-phones by using a control condition (CC.Methods:Seventy-six undergraduate participants with high social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS ≥ 30 were randomly assigned to four groups: CBM-A (n = 20, CBM-I (n = 20, AIM (n = 16, and CC (n = 20.Results: The results showed that the effects of CBM training, CBM-I training, or AIM training vs. CC for attention yielded no significant differences in dot-probe attention bias scores. The CBM-I group showed significantly less threat interpretation and more benign interpretation than the CC group on interpretation bias scores.Conclusions: The present results supported the feasibility of delivering CBM-I via smartphones, but the effectiveness of CBM-A and AIM training via smartphones was limited.

  6. Front-side biasing of n-in-p silicon strip detectors

    CERN Document Server

    Baselga Bacardit, Marta; Dierlamm, Alexander Hermann; Dragicevic, Marko Gerhart; Konig, Axel; Pree, Elias; Metzler, Marius

    2018-01-01

    Front-side biasing is an alternative method to bias a silicon sensor. Instead of directly applying high voltage to the back-side, one can exploit the conductive properties of the edge region to bias a detector exclusively via top-side connections. This option can be beneficial for the detector design and might help to facilitate the assembly process of modules. The effective bias voltage is affected by the resistance of the edge region and the sensor current. The measurements of n-in-p sensors performed to qualify this concept have shown that the voltage drop emerging from this resistance is negligible before irradiation. After irradiation, however, the resistivity of the edge region increases with fluence and saturates in the region of 10$^{7}\\,\\Omega$ at a fluence of 1$\\,\\cdot\\,10^{15}\\,$n$_{\\textrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$. The measurements are complemented by TCAD simulations and interpretations of the observed effects.

  7. Explicit Bias Toward High-Income-Country Research: A Randomized, Blinded, Crossover Experiment Of English Clinicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Matthew; Marti, Joachim; Watt, Hillary; Bhatti, Yasser; Macinko, James; Darzi, Ara W

    2017-11-01

    Unconscious bias may interfere with the interpretation of research from some settings, particularly from lower-income countries. Most studies of this phenomenon have relied on indirect outcomes such as article citation counts and publication rates; few have addressed or proven the effect of unconscious bias in evidence interpretation. In this randomized, blinded crossover experiment in a sample of 347 English clinicians, we demonstrate that changing the source of a research abstract from a low- to a high-income country significantly improves how it is viewed, all else being equal. Using fixed-effects models, we measured differences in ratings for strength of evidence, relevance, and likelihood of referral to a peer. Having a high-income-country source had a significant overall impact on respondents' ratings of relevance and recommendation to a peer. Unconscious bias can have far-reaching implications for the diffusion of knowledge and innovations from low-income countries.

  8. A multiwire ionization chamber readout circuit using current mirrors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rawnsley, W.R.; Smith, D.; Moskven, T.

    1997-01-01

    A circuit which utilizes current mirrors has been used to apply high voltage bias to the wires of a multiwire ionization chamber (MWIC) profile monitor while still allowing measurement of the beam-induced ion-electron currents collected on the wires. Bias voltages of up to 250 V have been used while wire currents over a range of 0.5 nA to 50 nA have been measured. The circuit is unipolar but can be designed for positive or negative bias. The mirrors also provide a current gain of 10, reducing the effects of transistor leakage and extending the useful range of the circuit to lower signal levels. A module containing 32 Wilson current mirrors has been constructed and is used with a MWIC monitor in TRIUMF close-quote s Parity experiment beamline. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  9. Measurement technology of RF interference current in high current system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Zhihua; Li, Jianxuan; Zhang, Xiangming; Zhang, Lei

    2018-06-01

    Current probe is a detection method commonly used in electromagnetic compatibility. With the development of power electronics technology, the power level of power conversion devices is constantly increasing, and the power current of the electric energy conversion device in the electromagnetic launch system can reach 10kA. Current probe conventionally used in EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) detection cannot meet the test requirements on high current system due to the magnetic saturation problem. The conventional high current sensor is also not suitable for the RF (Radio Frequency) interference current measurement in high current power device due to the high noise level in the output of active amplifier. In this paper, a passive flexible current probe based on Rogowski coil and matching resistance is proposed that can withstand high current and has low noise level, to solve the measurement problems of interference current in high current power converter. And both differential mode and common mode current detection can be easily carried out with the proposed probe because of the probe's flexible structure.

  10. High Efficient THz Emission From Unbiased and Biased Semiconductor Nanowires Fabricated Using Electron Beam Lithography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Balci, Soner; Czaplewski, David A.; Jung, Il Woong; Kim, Ju-Hyung; Hatami, Fariba; Kung, Patrick; Kim, Seongsin Margaret

    2017-07-01

    Besides having perfect control on structural features, such as vertical alignment and uniform distribution by fabricating the wires via e-beam lithography and etching process, we also investigated the THz emission from these fabricated nanowires when they are applied DC bias voltage. To be able to apply a voltage bias, an interdigitated gold (Au) electrode was patterned on the high-quality InGaAs epilayer grown on InP substrate bymolecular beam epitaxy. Afterwards, perfect vertically aligned and uniformly distributed nanowires were fabricated in between the electrodes of this interdigitated pattern so that we could apply voltage bias to improve the THz emission. As a result, we achieved enhancement in the emitted THz radiation by ~four times, about 12 dB increase in power ratio at 0.25 THz with a DC biased electric field compared with unbiased NWs.

  11. Highly efficient and reliable high power LEDs with patterned sapphire substrate and strip-shaped distributed current blocking layer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhou, Shengjun [School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Yuan, Shu; Liu, Yingce [Quantum Wafer Inc., Foshan 528251 (China); Guo, L. Jay [Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Liu, Sheng, E-mail: victor_liu63@126.com [School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); Ding, Han [State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

    2015-11-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • TEM is used to characterize threading dislocation existing in GaN epitaxial layer. • Effect of threading dislocation on optical and electrical of LEDs is discussed. • Strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL is designed to improve current spreading performance of LEDs. - Abstract: We demonstrated that the improvement in optical and electrical performance of high power LEDs was achieved using cone-shaped patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) and strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} distributed current blocking layer (DCBL). We found through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation that densities of both the screw dislocation and edge dislocation existing in GaN epitaxial layer grown on PSS were much less than that of GaN epitaxial layer grown on flat sapphire substrate (FSS). Compared to LED grown on FSS, LED grown on PSS showed higher sub-threshold forward-bias voltage and lower reverse leakage current, resulting in an enhancement in device reliability. We also designed a strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL beneath a strip-shaped p-electrode, which prevents the current from being concentrated on regions immediately adjacent the strip-shaped p-electrode, thereby facilitating uniform current spreading into the active region. By implementing strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL, light output power of high power PSS-LED chip could be further increased by 13%.

  12. High-voltage, high-current, solid-state closing switch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Focia, Ronald Jeffrey

    2017-08-22

    A high-voltage, high-current, solid-state closing switch uses a field-effect transistor (e.g., a MOSFET) to trigger a high-voltage stack of thyristors. The switch can have a high hold-off voltage, high current carrying capacity, and high time-rate-of-change of current, di/dt. The fast closing switch can be used in pulsed power applications.

  13. Anthropogenic range contractions bias species climate change forecasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faurby, Søren; Araújo, Miguel B.

    2018-03-01

    Forecasts of species range shifts under climate change most often rely on ecological niche models, in which characterizations of climate suitability are highly contingent on the species range data used. If ranges are far from equilibrium under current environmental conditions, for instance owing to local extinctions in otherwise suitable areas, modelled environmental suitability can be truncated, leading to biased estimates of the effects of climate change. Here we examine the impact of such biases on estimated risks from climate change by comparing models of the distribution of North American mammals based on current ranges with ranges accounting for historical information on species ranges. We find that estimated future diversity, almost everywhere, except in coastal Alaska, is drastically underestimated unless the full historical distribution of the species is included in the models. Consequently forecasts of climate change impacts on biodiversity for many clades are unlikely to be reliable without acknowledging anthropogenic influences on contemporary ranges.

  14. A Diffusion Model Analysis of Decision Biases Affecting Delayed Recognition of Emotional Stimuli

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowen, Holly J.; Spaniol, Julia; Patel, Ronak; Voss, Andreas

    2016-01-01

    Previous empirical work suggests that emotion can influence accuracy and cognitive biases underlying recognition memory, depending on the experimental conditions. The current study examines the effects of arousal and valence on delayed recognition memory using the diffusion model, which allows the separation of two decision biases thought to underlie memory: response bias and memory bias. Memory bias has not been given much attention in the literature but can provide insight into the retrieval dynamics of emotion modulated memory. Participants viewed emotional pictorial stimuli; half were given a recognition test 1-day later and the other half 7-days later. Analyses revealed that emotional valence generally evokes liberal responding, whereas high arousal evokes liberal responding only at a short retention interval. The memory bias analyses indicated that participants experienced greater familiarity with high-arousal compared to low-arousal items and this pattern became more pronounced as study-test lag increased; positive items evoke greater familiarity compared to negative and this pattern remained stable across retention interval. The findings provide insight into the separate contributions of valence and arousal to the cognitive mechanisms underlying delayed emotion modulated memory. PMID:26784108

  15. Beyond attentional bias: a perceptual bias in a dot-probe task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bocanegra, Bruno R; Huijding, Jorg; Zeelenberg, René

    2012-12-01

    Previous dot-probe studies indicate that threat-related face cues induce a bias in spatial attention. Independently of spatial attention, a recent psychophysical study suggests that a bilateral fearful face cue improves low spatial-frequency perception (LSF) and impairs high spatial-frequency perception (HSF). Here, we combine these separate lines of research within a single dot-probe paradigm. We found that a bilateral fearful face cue, compared with a bilateral neutral face cue, speeded up responses to LSF targets and slowed down responses to HSF targets. This finding is important, as it shows that emotional cues in dot-probe tasks not only bias where information is preferentially processed (i.e., an attentional bias in spatial location), but also bias what type of information is preferentially processed (i.e., a perceptual bias in spatial frequency). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

  16. Trapping in GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor transistors: Role of high drain bias and hot electrons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meneghini, M., E-mail: matteo.meneghini@dei.unipd.it; Bisi, D.; Meneghesso, G.; Zanoni, E. [Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, via Gradenigo 6/B, 35131 Padova (Italy); Marcon, D.; Stoffels, S.; Van Hove, M.; Wu, T.-L.; Decoutere, S. [IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee (Belgium)

    2014-04-07

    This paper describes an extensive analysis of the role of off-state and semi-on state bias in inducing the trapping in GaN-based power High Electron Mobility Transistors. The study is based on combined pulsed characterization and on-resistance transient measurements. We demonstrate that—by changing the quiescent bias point from the off-state to the semi-on state—it is possible to separately analyze two relevant trapping mechanisms: (i) the trapping of electrons in the gate-drain access region, activated by the exposure to high drain bias in the off-state; (ii) the trapping of hot-electrons within the AlGaN barrier or the gate insulator, which occurs when the devices are operated in the semi-on state. The dependence of these two mechanisms on the bias conditions and on temperature, and the properties (activation energy and cross section) of the related traps are described in the text.

  17. Time-course of attentional bias for positive social words in individuals with high and low social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Hongyu; Li, Songwei; Qian, Mingyi; Yang, Peng; Wang, Xiaoling; Lin, Muyu; Yao, Nisha

    2014-07-01

    Although accumulating research demonstrates the association between attentional bias and social anxiety, the bias for positive stimuli has so far not been adequately studied. The aim is to investigate the time-course of attentional bias for positive social words in participants with high and low social anxiety. In a modified dot-probe task, word-pairs of neutral and positive social words were randomly presented for 100, 500, and 1250 milliseconds in a nonclinical sample of students to test their attentional bias. Non-significant interaction of Group × Exposure Duration was found. However, there was a significant main effect of group, with significantly different response latencies between the high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) groups in the 100 ms condition, without for 500 or 1250 ms. With respect to attentional bias, the LSA group showed enhanced preferential attention for positive social words to which the HSA group showed avoidance in the 100 ms condition. In the 500 ms condition, preferential attention to positive social words was at trend in the LSA group, relative to the HSA group. Neither group showed attentional bias in the 1250 ms condition. These findings extend recent research about the attention training program and add to the empirical literature suggesting that the initial avoidance of positive stimuli may contribute to maintaining social anxiety.

  18. Simulation of HPIB propagation in biased charge collector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Hongyu; Qiu Aici

    2004-01-01

    A 2.5D PIC simulation using KARAT code for inner charge propagation within biased charge collector for measuring HPIB is presented. The simulation results indicate that the charges were neutralized but the current non-neutralized in the biased charge collector. The influence of ions collected vs biased voltage of the collector was also simulated. -800 V biased voltage can meet the measurement of 500 keV HPIB, and this is consistent with the experimental results

  19. Systematic Biases in Parameter Estimation of Binary Black-Hole Mergers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Littenberg, Tyson B.; Baker, John G.; Buonanno, Alessandra; Kelly, Bernard J.

    2012-01-01

    Parameter estimation of binary-black-hole merger events in gravitational-wave data relies on matched filtering techniques, which, in turn, depend on accurate model waveforms. Here we characterize the systematic biases introduced in measuring astrophysical parameters of binary black holes by applying the currently most accurate effective-one-body templates to simulated data containing non-spinning numerical-relativity waveforms. For advanced ground-based detectors, we find that the systematic biases are well within the statistical error for realistic signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). These biases grow to be comparable to the statistical errors at high signal-to-noise ratios for ground-based instruments (SNR approximately 50) but never dominate the error budget. At the much larger signal-to-noise ratios expected for space-based detectors, these biases will become large compared to the statistical errors but are small enough (at most a few percent in the black-hole masses) that we expect they should not affect broad astrophysical conclusions that may be drawn from the data.

  20. Magnetic field induced suppression of the forward bias current in Bi2Se3/Si Schottky barrier diodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Haoming; Hebard, Arthur

    Schottky diodes formed by van der Waals bonding between freshly cleaved flakes of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 and doped silicon substrates show electrical characteristics in good agreement with thermionic emission theory. The motivation is to use magnetic fields to modulate the conductance of the topologically protected conducting surface state. This surface state in close proximity to the semiconductor surface may play an important role in determining the nature of the Schottky barrier. Current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics were obtained for temperatures in the range 50-300 K and magnetic fields, both perpendicular and parallel to the interface, as high as 7 T. The I-V curve shows more than 6 decades linearity on semi-logarithmic plots, allowing extraction of parameters such as ideality (η), zero-voltage Schottky barrier height (SBH), and series resistance (Rs). In forward bias we observe a field-induced decrease in current which becomes increasingly more pronounced at higher voltages and lower temperature, and is found to be correlated with changes in Rs rather than other barrier parameters. A comparison of changes in Rs in both field direction will be made with magnetoresistance in Bi2Se3 transport measurement. The work is supported by NSF through DMR 1305783.

  1. Exploring Teachers' and Students' Gender Role Bias and Students' Confidence in STEM Fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hand, Sarah; Rice, Lindsay; Greenlee, Eric

    2017-01-01

    There is a shortfall of girls and women pursuing STEM disciplines, a deficit that may be partially attributed to subtle forms of bias that are tied to traditional gender role stereotypes. The current study examined these subtle biases in high school teachers and students in two ways: by asking teachers and students to attribute masculine and…

  2. Analysis of bias effects on the total ionizing dose response in a 180 nm technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Zhangli; Hu Zhiyuan; Zhang, Zhengxuan; Shao Hua; Chen Ming; Bi Dawei; Ning Bingxu; Zou Shichang

    2011-01-01

    The effects of gamma ray irradiation on the shallow trench isolation (STI) leakage current in a 180 nm technology are investigated. The radiation response is strongly influenced by the bias modes, gate bias during irradiation, substrate bias during irradiation and operating substrate bias after irradiation. We found that the worst case occurs under the ON bias condition for the ON, OFF and PASS bias mode. A positive gate bias during irradiation significantly enhances the STI leakage current, indicating the electric field influence on the charge buildup process during radiation. Also, a negative substrate bias during irradiation enhances the STI leakage current. However a negative operating substrate bias effectively suppresses the STI leakage current, and can be used to eliminate the leakage current produced by the charge trapped in the deep STI oxide. Appropriate substrate bias should be introduced to alleviate the total ionizing dose (TID) response, and lead to acceptable threshold voltage shift and subthreshold hump effect. Depending on the simulation results, we believe that the electric field distribution in the STI oxide is the key parameter influencing bias effects on the radiation response of transistor. - Highlights: → ON bias is the worst bias condition for the ON, PASS and OFF bias modes. → Larger gate bias during irradiation leads to more pronounced characteristic degradation. → TID induced STI leakage can be suppressed by negative operating substrate bias voltage. → Negative substrate bias during irradiation leads to larger increase of off-state leakage. → Electric field in the STI oxide greatly influences the device's radiation effect.

  3. Bias correction of satellite precipitation products for flood forecasting application at the Upper Mahanadi River Basin in Eastern India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beria, H.; Nanda, T., Sr.; Chatterjee, C.

    2015-12-01

    High resolution satellite precipitation products such as Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), etc., offer a promising alternative to flood forecasting in data scarce regions. At the current state-of-art, these products cannot be used in the raw form for flood forecasting, even at smaller lead times. In the current study, these precipitation products are bias corrected using statistical techniques, such as additive and multiplicative bias corrections, and wavelet multi-resolution analysis (MRA) with India Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded precipitation product,obtained from gauge-based rainfall estimates. Neural network based rainfall-runoff modeling using these bias corrected products provide encouraging results for flood forecasting upto 48 hours lead time. We will present various statistical and graphical interpretations of catchment response to high rainfall events using both the raw and bias corrected precipitation products at different lead times.

  4. Inverted end-Hall-type low-energy high-current gaseous ion source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oks, E. M.; Vizir, A. V.; Shandrikov, M. V.; Yushkov, G. Yu.; Grishin, D. M.; Anders, A.; Baldwin, D. A.

    2008-01-01

    A novel approach to low-energy, high-current, gaseous ion beam generation was explored and an ion source based on this technique has been developed. The source utilizes a dc high-current (up to 20 A) gaseous discharge with electron injection into the region of ion generation. Compared to the conventional end-Hall ion source, the locations of the discharge anode and cathode are inverted: the cathode is placed inside the source and the anode outside, and correspondingly, the discharge current is in the opposite direction. The discharge operates in a diverging axial magnetic field, similar to the end-Hall source. Electron generation and injection is accomplished by using an additional arc discharge with a ''cold'' (filamentless) hollow cathode. Low plasma contamination is achieved by using a low discharge voltage (avoidance of sputtering), as well as by a special geometric configuration of the emitter discharge electrodes, thereby filtering (removing) the erosion products stemming from the emitter cathode. The device produces a dc ion flow with energy below 20 eV and current up to 2.5 A onto a collector of 500 cm 2 at 25 cm from the source edge, at a pressure ≥0.02 Pa and gas flow rate ≥14 SCCM. The ion energy spread is 2 to 3 eV (rms). The source is characterized by high reliability, low maintenance, and long lifetime. The beam contains less than 0.1% of metallic ions. The specific electric energy consumption is 400 eV per ion registered at the collector. The source operates with noble gases, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrocarbons. Utilizing biasing, it can be used for plasma sputtering, etching, and other ion technologies

  5. Attribution bias and social anxiety in schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amelie M. Achim

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia have produced mixed results, whereas such biases have been more consistently reported in people with anxiety disorders. Anxiety comorbidities are frequent in schizophrenia, in particular social anxiety disorder, which could influence their patterns of attribution biases. The objective of the present study was thus to determine if individuals with schizophrenia and a comorbid social anxiety disorder (SZ+ show distinct attribution biases as compared with individuals with schizophrenia without social anxiety (SZ− and healthy controls. Attribution biases were assessed with the Internal, Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire in 41 individual with schizophrenia and 41 healthy controls. Results revealed the lack of the normal externalizing bias in SZ+, whereas SZ− did not significantly differ from healthy controls on this dimension. The personalizing bias was not influenced by social anxiety but was in contrast linked with delusions, with a greater personalizing bias in individuals with current delusions. Future studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia should carefully document symptom presentation, including social anxiety.

  6. Indicators of implicit and explicit social anxiety influence threat-related interpretive bias as a function of working memory capacity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Salemink, E.; Friese, M.; Drake, E.; Mackintosh, B.; Hoppitt, L.

    2013-01-01

    Interpretive biases play a crucial role in anxiety disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine factors that determine the relative strength of threat-related interpretive biases that are characteristic of individuals high in social anxiety. Different (dual process) models argue that both

  7. High-Average, High-Peak Current Injector Design

    CERN Document Server

    Biedron, S G; Virgo, M

    2005-01-01

    There is increasing interest in high-average-power (>100 kW), um-range FELs. These machines require high peak current (~1 kA), modest transverse emittance, and beam energies of ~100 MeV. High average currents (~1 A) place additional constraints on the design of the injector. We present a design for an injector intended to produce the required peak currents at the injector, eliminating the need for magnetic compression within the linac. This reduces the potential for beam quality degradation due to CSR and space charge effects within magnetic chicanes.

  8. Tuning of the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of a-C:H films by bias voltage of high frequency unipolar pulse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Jia; Cao, Zhongyue; Pan, Fuping; Wang, Fuguo; Liang, Aimin; Zhang, Junyan

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • a-C:H films deposited by high frequency unipolar pulse PECVD. • The film structures can be adjusted by bias voltage. • More graphitic structures form at high bias voltage. • The mechanical and tribological properties are improved by these structures. - Abstract: Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films were prepared by high frequency unipolar pulse plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition in CH 4 , Ar, and H 2 atmosphere with the bias voltage in the range of −800 –−1600 V. The microstructures and mechanical properties of a-C:H films were investigated via high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), Raman spectroscopy, and Nanoindenter. The results reveal that the curved and straight graphitic microstructures appear in amorphous carbon matrix, and their contents increase obviously with the bias voltage. At the same time, the corresponding hardness decreases and elastic recovery increases, however even in such a case films still possess excellent mechanical properties. According to the tribological property characterization, we believe that the bias voltage also influences their tribological performances significantly, the higher the bias voltage finally gets, the lower the friction coefficient and wear rate occur. These results indicate that the microstructures of a-C:H films can be tuned efficiently by bias voltage and the films with good mechanical and tribological properties can be obtained at a higher range.

  9. Tuning of the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of a-C:H films by bias voltage of high frequency unipolar pulse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Jia; Cao, Zhongyue; Pan, Fuping [State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Wang, Fuguo, E-mail: fgwang@licp.cas.cn [State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); Liang, Aimin [State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); Zhang, Junyan, E-mail: zhangjunyan@licp.cas.cn [State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China)

    2015-11-30

    Highlights: • a-C:H films deposited by high frequency unipolar pulse PECVD. • The film structures can be adjusted by bias voltage. • More graphitic structures form at high bias voltage. • The mechanical and tribological properties are improved by these structures. - Abstract: Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films were prepared by high frequency unipolar pulse plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition in CH{sub 4}, Ar, and H{sub 2} atmosphere with the bias voltage in the range of −800 –−1600 V. The microstructures and mechanical properties of a-C:H films were investigated via high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), Raman spectroscopy, and Nanoindenter. The results reveal that the curved and straight graphitic microstructures appear in amorphous carbon matrix, and their contents increase obviously with the bias voltage. At the same time, the corresponding hardness decreases and elastic recovery increases, however even in such a case films still possess excellent mechanical properties. According to the tribological property characterization, we believe that the bias voltage also influences their tribological performances significantly, the higher the bias voltage finally gets, the lower the friction coefficient and wear rate occur. These results indicate that the microstructures of a-C:H films can be tuned efficiently by bias voltage and the films with good mechanical and tribological properties can be obtained at a higher range.

  10. High performance current and spin diode of atomic carbon chain between transversely symmetric ribbon electrodes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Yao-Jun; Wang, Xue-Feng; Yang, Shuo-Wang; Wu, Xue-Mei

    2014-08-21

    We demonstrate that giant current and high spin rectification ratios can be achieved in atomic carbon chain devices connected between two symmetric ferromagnetic zigzag-graphene-nanoribbon electrodes. The spin dependent transport simulation is carried out by density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function method. It is found that the transverse symmetries of the electronic wave functions in the nanoribbons and the carbon chain are critical to the spin transport modes. In the parallel magnetization configuration of two electrodes, pure spin current is observed in both linear and nonlinear regions. However, in the antiparallel configuration, the spin-up (down) current is prohibited under the positive (negative) voltage bias, which results in a spin rectification ratio of order 10(4). When edge carbon atoms are substituted with boron atoms to suppress the edge magnetization in one of the electrodes, we obtain a diode with current rectification ratio over 10(6).

  11. High PRF high current switch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moran, Stuart L.; Hutcherson, R. Kenneth

    1990-03-27

    A triggerable, high voltage, high current, spark gap switch for use in pu power systems. The device comprises a pair of electrodes in a high pressure hydrogen environment that is triggered by introducing an arc between one electrode and a trigger pin. Unusually high repetition rates may be obtained by undervolting the switch, i.e., operating the trigger at voltages much below the self-breakdown voltage of the device.

  12. Production bias and cluster annihilation: Why necessary?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Singh, B.N.; Trinkaus, H.; Woo, C.H.

    1994-01-01

    the primary cluster density is high. Therefore, a sustained high swelling rate driven by production bias must involve the annihilation of primary clusters at sinks. A number of experimental observations which are unexplainable in terms of the conventional dislocation bias for monointerstitials is considered......-field approach. The production bias approach, on the other hand, is based on the physical features of the cascade damage and is therefore considered to be more appropriate for describing the damage accumulation under cascade damage conditions. However, production bias can not produce high a swelling rate when....... It is found that the production bias and cluster annihilation are necessary to explain these observations, with, in many cases, the explicit consideration of the annihilation of the primary interstitial clusters....

  13. On the Borders of Harmful and Helpful Beauty Biases

    OpenAIRE

    Maria Agthe; Maria Strobel; Matthias Spörrle; Michaela Pfundmair; Jon K. Maner

    2016-01-01

    Research with European Caucasian samples demonstrates that attractiveness-based biases in social evaluation depend on the constellation of the sex of the evaluator and the sex of the target: Whereas people generally show positive biases toward attractive opposite-sex persons, they show less positive or even negative biases toward attractive same-sex persons. By examining these biases both within and between different ethnicities, the current studies provide new evidence for both the generaliz...

  14. Pharmacological interventions to modulate attentional bias in addiction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Luijten, M.; Field, M.; Franken, I.H.A.

    2014-01-01

    Attentional bias in substance-dependent patients is the tendency to automatically direct attention to substance-related cues in the environment. Preclinical models suggest that attentional bias emerges as a consequence of dopaminergic activity evoked by substance-related cues. The aim of the current

  15. Influence of the gate edge on the reverse leakage current of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    YongHe Chen

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available By comparing the Schottky diodes of different area and perimeter, reverse gate leakage current of AlGaN/GaN high mobility transistors (HEMT at gate bias beyond threshold voltage is studied. It is revealed that reverse current consists of area-related and perimeter-related current. An analytical model of electric field calculation is proposed to obtain the average electric field around the gate edge at high revers bias and estimate the effective range of edge leakage current. When the reverse bias increases, the increment of electric field is around the gate edge of a distance of ΔL, and perimeter-related gate edge current keeps increasing. By using the calculated electric field and the temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements, the edge gate leakage current mechanism is found to be Fowler-Nordheim tunneling at gate bias bellows -15V caused by the lateral extended depletion region induced barrier thinning. Effective range of edge current of Schottky diodes is about hundred to several hundred nano-meters, and is different in different shapes of Schottky diodes.

  16. Recent Advances in Attention Bias Modification for Substance Addictions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melvyn Weibin Zhang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Research on attentional bias modification has increased since 2014. A recent meta-analysis demonstrates evidence for bias modification for substance disorders, including alcohol and tobacco use disorders. Several pharmacological trials have shown that pharmacological agents can attenuate and modify such attentional bias. The pharmacological trials that have appeared to date have produced mixed results, which has clinical implications. Developments in Internet and mobile technologies have transformed how attention bias modification is currently being achieved. There remains great potential for further research that examines the efficacy of technology-aided attention bias interventions.

  17. Some design considerations for perpendicular biased ferrite tuners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Enchevich, I.B.; Poirier, R.L.

    1994-10-01

    Recently remarkable progress has been achieved in the development of perpendicular biased ferrite tuned rf resonators for fast cycled synchrotrons. Compared with the broadly used parallel biased rf cavities they provide higher resonator quality factor Q. However when designing perpendicular biased cavities, special attention should be paid to the methods to provide eddy current suppression in the resonator walls, the ferrite nonlinearity influence, the generated heat removal, the fast self resonant frequency control. The prospective of a faster additional biasing system are discussed and conclusions are drawn. (author). 8 refs., 6 figs

  18. Mechanism for and method of biasing magnetic sensor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kautz, David R.

    2007-12-04

    A magnetic sensor package having a biasing mechanism involving a coil-generated, resistor-controlled magnetic field for providing a desired biasing effect. In a preferred illustrated embodiment, the package broadly comprises a substrate; a magnetic sensor element; a biasing mechanism, including a coil and a first resistance element; an amplification mechanism; a filter capacitor element; and an encapsulant. The sensor is positioned within the coil. A current applied to the coil produces a biasing magnetic field. The biasing magnetic field is controlled by selecting a resistance value for the first resistance element which achieves the desired biasing effect. The first resistance element preferably includes a plurality of selectable resistors, the selection of one or more of which sets the resistance value.

  19. How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlach, Haley A

    2016-12-01

    The "shape bias" describes the phenomenon that, after a certain point in development, children and adults generalize object categories based on shape to a greater degree than other perceptual features. The focus of research on the shape bias has been to examine the types of information that learners attend to in one moment in time. The current work takes a different approach by examining whether learners' categorical biases are related to their retention of information across time. In three experiments, children's (N=72) and adults' (N=240) memory performance for features of objects was examined in relation to their categorical biases. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the number of shape matches chosen during the shape bias task significantly predicted shape memory. Moreover, children and adults with a shape bias were more likely to remember the shape of objects than the color and size of objects. Taken together, this work suggests that the development of a shape bias may engender better memory for shape information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Inelastic transport and low-bias rectification in a single-molecule diode.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hihath, Joshua; Bruot, Christopher; Nakamura, Hisao; Asai, Yoshihiro; Díez-Pérez, Ismael; Lee, Youngu; Yu, Luping; Tao, Nongjian

    2011-10-25

    Designing, controlling, and understanding rectification behavior in molecular-scale devices has been a goal of the molecular electronics community for many years. Here we study the transport behavior of a single molecule diode, and its nonrectifying, symmetric counterpart at low temperatures, and at both low and high biases to help elucidate the electron-phonon interactions and transport mechanisms in the rectifying system. We find that the onset of current rectification occurs at low biases, indicating a significant change in the elastic transport pathway. However, the peaks in the inelastic electron tunneling (IET) spectrum are antisymmetric about zero bias and show no significant changes in energy or intensity in the forward or reverse bias directions, indicating that despite the change in the elastic transmission probability there is little impact on the inelastic pathway. These results agree with first principles calculations performed to evaluate the IETS, which also allow us to identify which modes are active in the single molecule junction.

  1. Decision Making In A High-Tech World: Automation Bias and Countermeasures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosier, Kathleen L.; Skitka, Linda J.; Burdick, Mark R.; Heers, Susan T.; Rosekind, Mark R. (Technical Monitor)

    1996-01-01

    Automated decision aids and decision support systems have become essential tools in many high-tech environments. In aviation, for example, flight management systems computers not only fly the aircraft, but also calculate fuel efficient paths, detect and diagnose system malfunctions and abnormalities, and recommend or carry out decisions. Air Traffic Controllers will soon be utilizing decision support tools to help them predict and detect potential conflicts and to generate clearances. Other fields as disparate as nuclear power plants and medical diagnostics are similarly becoming more and more automated. Ideally, the combination of human decision maker and automated decision aid should result in a high-performing team, maximizing the advantages of additional cognitive and observational power in the decision-making process. In reality, however, the presence of these aids often short-circuits the way that even very experienced decision makers have traditionally handled tasks and made decisions, and introduces opportunities for new decision heuristics and biases. Results of recent research investigating the use of automated aids have indicated the presence of automation bias, that is, errors made when decision makers rely on automated cues as a heuristic replacement for vigilant information seeking and processing. Automation commission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers inappropriately follow an automated directive, or automation omission errors, i.e., errors made when humans fail to take action or notice a problem because an automated aid fails to inform them, can result from this tendency. Evidence of the tendency to make automation-related omission and commission errors has been found in pilot self reports, in studies using pilots in flight simulations, and in non-flight decision making contexts with student samples. Considerable research has found that increasing social accountability can successfully ameliorate a broad array of cognitive biases and

  2. High current plasma electron emitter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fiksel, G.; Almagri, A.F.; Craig, D.

    1995-07-01

    A high current plasma electron emitter based on a miniature plasma source has been developed. The emitting plasma is created by a pulsed high current gas discharge. The electron emission current is 1 kA at 300 V at the pulse duration of 10 ms. The prototype injector described in this paper will be used for a 20 kA electrostatic current injection experiment in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) reversed-field pinch. The source will be replicated in order to attain this total current requirement. The source has a simple design and has proven very reliable in operation. A high emission current, small size (3.7 cm in diameter), and low impurity generation make the source suitable for a variety of fusion and technological applications

  3. Running Performance, VO2max, and Running Economy: The Widespread Issue of Endogenous Selection Bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borgen, Nicolai T

    2018-05-01

    Studies in sport and exercise medicine routinely use samples of highly trained individuals in order to understand what characterizes elite endurance performance, such as running economy and maximal oxygen uptake VO 2max . However, it is not well understood in the literature that using such samples most certainly leads to biased findings and accordingly potentially erroneous conclusions because of endogenous selection bias. In this paper, I review the current literature on running economy and VO 2max , and discuss the literature in light of endogenous selection bias. I demonstrate that the results in a large part of the literature may be misleading, and provide some practical suggestions as to how future studies may alleviate endogenous selection bias.

  4. Specific features of the switch-on gate current and different switch-on modes in silicon carbide thyristors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yurkov, S N; Mnatsakanov, T T; Levinshtein, M E; Cheng, L; Palmour, J W

    2014-01-01

    The specific features of the temperature and bias dependences of the switch-on gate current in SiC thyristors are examined analytically for two possible switching mechanisms. The so-called γ-mechanism, which is highly typical of the conventional Si thyristors, is characterized by very weak temperature and bias dependences. By contrast, the so-called α-mechanism, which is very characteristic of SiC thyristors, is highly sensitive to changes in temperature and bias. If the thyristor is switched on by the α-mechanism, the switch-on gate current density decreases very steeply with increasing temperature. As a result, the thyristor can lose its working capacity at elevated temperatures due to the instability against even very weak impacts. With decreasing the bias voltage U a , the gate switch-on current increases very steeply, which can make switching the thyristor on difficult. The unintentional shunting, which is apparently present in high-voltage SiC thyristors, causes the transition from the α- to the γ-mechanism at elevated temperatures and high biases. It can be supposed that introduction of a controllable technological shunting of the emitter–thin base junction allows stabilization of the temperature and bias parameters of SiC thyristors. The analytical results are confirmed by computer simulations performed in wide temperature and bias ranges for a 4H-SiC thyristor of the 18 kV class. (paper)

  5. Investigation of the current collapse induced in InGaN back barrier AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wan Xiaojia; Wang Xiaoliang; Xiao Hongling; Feng Chun; Jiang Lijuan; Qu Shenqi; Wang Zhanguo; Hou Xun

    2013-01-01

    Current collapses were studied, which were observed in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with and without InGaN back barrier (BB) as a result of short-term bias stress. More serious drain current collapses were observed in InGaN BB AlGaN/GaN HEMTs compared with the traditional HEMTs. The results indicate that the defects and surface states induced by the InGaN BB layer may enhance the current collapse. The surface states may be the primary mechanism of the origination of current collapse in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for short-term direct current stress. (semiconductor devices)

  6. Weight bias in work settings - a qualitative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giel, Katrin Elisabeth; Thiel, Ansgar; Teufel, Martin; Mayer, Jochen; Zipfel, Stephan

    2010-02-01

    Studies have repeatedly demonstrated the influence of physical appearance on behavior and treatment of individuals in work settings. A high proportion of obese individuals in the USA have reported perceived discrimination in the work place due to their body weight. The present review examines the specific kind, context and extent of a weight bias in work settings. We performed a literature search in the scientific databases PubMed and PsychINFO to identify studies which have investigated aspects of a potential weight bias in the occupational context. There is evidence from self-report data, surveys, and laboratory research for a weight bias in five aspects of work life. Evidence shows that obesity is a general barrier to employment, certain professions and professional success. Obese individuals are at higher risk of encountering stereotypes concerning their work-related qualities and for general unequal treatment in the work place. Current evidence reveals a weight bias in several areas in the work place. The ecological validity of results is limited due to the predominant reliance on laboratory studies with student samples. Field studies are needed to examine weight-based discrimination in actual work environments as well as to uncover underlying mechanisms. Copyright 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  7. Effects of nuclear radiation on a high-reliability silicon power diode. 4: Analysis of reverse bias characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Been, J. F.

    1973-01-01

    The effects of nuclear radiation on the reverse bias electrical characteristics of one hundred silicon power diodes were investigated. On a percentage basis, the changes in reverse currents were large but, due to very low initial values, this electrical characteristic was not the limiting factor in use of these diodes. These changes were interpreted in terms of decreasing minority carrier lifetimes as related to generation-recombination currents. The magnitudes of reverse voltage breakdown were unaffected by irradiation.

  8. Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesis With Multilevel Pulse Biasing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brevik, Justus A.; Flowers-Jacobs, Nathan E.; Fox, Anna E.; Golden, Evan B.; Dresselhaus, Paul D.; Benz, Samuel P.

    2017-01-01

    We describe the implementation of new commercial pulse-bias electronics that have enabled an improvement in the generation of quantum-accurate waveforms both with and without low-frequency compensation biases. We have used these electronics to apply a multilevel pulse bias to the Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer and have generated, for the first time, a quantum-accurate bipolar sinusoidal waveform without the use of a low-frequency compensation bias current. This uncompensated 1 kHz waveform was synthesized with an rms amplitude of 325 mV and maintained its quantum accuracy over a1.5 mA operating current range. The same technique and equipment was also used to synthesize a quantum-accurate 1 MHz sinusoid with a 1.2 mA operating margin. In addition, we have synthesized a compensated 1 kHz sinusoid with an rms amplitude of 1 V and a 2.7 mA operating margin. PMID:28736494

  9. Emotional Encoding Context Leads to Memory Bias in Individuals with High Anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Christopher; Fernandes, Myra A

    2017-12-27

    We investigated whether anxious individuals, who adopt an inherently negative mindset, demonstrate a particularly salient memory bias for words tainted by negative contexts. To this end, sequentially presented target words, overlayed onto negative or neutral pictures, were studied in separate blocks (within-subjects) using a deep or shallow encoding instruction (between-subjects). Following study, in Test 1, participants completed separate recognition test blocks for the words overlayed onto the negative and the neutral contexts. Following this, in Test 2, participants completed a recognition test for the foils from each Test 1 block. We found a significant three-way interaction on Test 2, such that individuals with high anxiety who initially studied target words using a shallow encoding instruction, demonstrated significantly elevated memory for foils that were contained within the negative Test 1 block. Results show that during retrieval (Test 1), participants re-entered the mode of processing (negative or neutral) engaged at encoding, tainting the encoding of foils with that same mode of processing. The findings suggest that individuals with high relative to low anxiety, adopt a particularly salient negative retrieval mode, and this creates a downstream bias in encoding and subsequent retrieval of otherwise neutral information.

  10. High plasma rotation velocity and density transitions by biased electrodes in RF produced, magnetized plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuyama, Shoichiro; Shinohara, Shunjiro

    2001-01-01

    A large density profile modification was successfully obtained by voltage biasing to electrodes inserted in a RF (radio frequency) produced, magnetized plasma, and formation of strong shear of azimuthal plasma rotation velocity in a supersonic regime was found. For the case of biasing to an electrode near the central plasma region, two types of density transitions were observed in the outer plasma region: one was an oscillatory transition between two states, and the other was a transition from high to low density states with a large reduction of density fluctuations. (author)

  11. High plasma rotation velocity and density transitions by biased electrodes in RF produced, magnetized plasma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matsuyama, Shoichiro; Shinohara, Shunjiro [Kyushu Univ., Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Fukuoka (Japan)

    2001-07-01

    A large density profile modification was successfully obtained by voltage biasing to electrodes inserted in a RF (radio frequency) produced, magnetized plasma, and formation of strong shear of azimuthal plasma rotation velocity in a supersonic regime was found. For the case of biasing to an electrode near the central plasma region, two types of density transitions were observed in the outer plasma region: one was an oscillatory transition between two states, and the other was a transition from high to low density states with a large reduction of density fluctuations. (author)

  12. Visual search attentional bias modification reduced social phobia in adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Voogd, E L; Wiers, R W; Prins, P J M; Salemink, E

    2014-06-01

    An attentional bias for negative information plays an important role in the development and maintenance of (social) anxiety and depression, which are highly prevalent in adolescence. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) might be an interesting tool in the prevention of emotional disorders. The current study investigated whether visual search ABM might affect attentional bias and emotional functioning in adolescents. A visual search task was used as a training paradigm; participants (n = 16 adolescents, aged 13-16) had to repeatedly identify the only smiling face in a 4 × 4 matrix of negative emotional faces, while participants in the control condition (n = 16) were randomly allocated to one of three placebo training versions. An assessment version of the task was developed to directly test whether attentional bias changed due to the training. Self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms and self-esteem were measured pre- and post-training. After two sessions of training, the ABM group showed a significant decrease in attentional bias for negative information and self-reported social phobia, while the control group did not. There were no effects of training on depressive mood or self-esteem. No correlation between attentional bias and social phobia was found, which raises questions about the validity of the attentional bias assessment task. Also, the small sample size precludes strong conclusions. Visual search ABM might be beneficial in changing attentional bias and social phobia in adolescents, but further research with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up is needed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. High and tunable spin current induced by magnetic-electric fields in a single-mode spintronic device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bala Kumar, S; Jalil, M B A; Tan, S G; Liang, G-C

    2009-01-01

    We proposed that a viable form of spin current transistor is one to be made from a single-mode device which passes electrons through a series of magnetic-electric barriers built into the device. The barriers assume a wavy spatial profile across the conduction path due to the inevitable broadening of the magnetic fields. Field broadening results in a linearly increasing vector potential across the conduction channel, which increases spin polarization. We have identified that the important factors for generating high spin polarization and conductance modulation are the low source-drain bias, the broadened magnetic fields, and the high number of FM gates within a fixed channel length.

  14. Highly aligned carbon nanotube arrays fabricated by bias sputtering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayashi, Nobuyuki; Honda, Shin-ichi; Tsuji, Keita; Lee, Kuei-Yi; Ikuno, Takashi; Fujimoto, Keiichi; Ohkura, Shigeharu; Katayama, Mitsuhiro; Oura, Kenjiro; Hirao, Takashi

    2003-01-01

    Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays have been successfully grown on Si substrates by dc bias sputtering. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed that the resultant arrays consisted of dense CNTs with diameters of 40-60 nm and lengths of 300-400 nm. The CNTs were found to have a bamboo-like structure at the end of which metallic nanoparticle was formed, indicating tip growth mechanism. The energy enhancement of carbon particles is a key factor for synthesis of CNTs using dc bias sputtering system

  15. Adaptable history biases in human perceptual decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abrahamyan, Arman; Silva, Laura Luz; Dakin, Steven C; Carandini, Matteo; Gardner, Justin L

    2016-06-21

    When making choices under conditions of perceptual uncertainty, past experience can play a vital role. However, it can also lead to biases that worsen decisions. Consistent with previous observations, we found that human choices are influenced by the success or failure of past choices even in a standard two-alternative detection task, where choice history is irrelevant. The typical bias was one that made the subject switch choices after a failure. These choice history biases led to poorer performance and were similar for observers in different countries. They were well captured by a simple logistic regression model that had been previously applied to describe psychophysical performance in mice. Such irrational biases seem at odds with the principles of reinforcement learning, which would predict exquisite adaptability to choice history. We therefore asked whether subjects could adapt their irrational biases following changes in trial order statistics. Adaptability was strong in the direction that confirmed a subject's default biases, but weaker in the opposite direction, so that existing biases could not be eradicated. We conclude that humans can adapt choice history biases, but cannot easily overcome existing biases even if irrational in the current context: adaptation is more sensitive to confirmatory than contradictory statistics.

  16. Capturing Dynamics of Biased Attention: Are New Attention Variability Measures the Way Forward?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne-Wil Kruijt

    Full Text Available New indices, calculated on data from the widely used Dot Probe Task, were recently proposed to capture variability in biased attention allocation. We observed that it remains unclear which data pattern is meant to be indicative of dynamic bias and thus to be captured by these indices. Moreover, we hypothesized that the new indices are sensitive to SD differences at the response time (RT level in the absence of bias.Randomly generated datasets were analyzed to assess properties of the Attention Bias Variability (ABV and Trial Level Bias Score (TL-BS indices. Sensitivity to creating differences in 1 RT standard deviation, 2 mean RT, and 3 bias magnitude were assessed. In addition, two possible definitions of dynamic attention bias were explored by creating differences in 4 frequency of bias switching, and 5 bias magnitude in the presence of constant switching.ABV and TL-BS indices were found highly sensitive to increasing SD at the response time level, insensitive to increasing bias, linearly sensitive to increasing bias magnitude in the presence of bias switches, and non-linearly sensitive to increasing the frequency of bias switches. The ABV index was also found responsive to increasing mean response times in the absence of bias.Recently proposed DPT derived variability indices cannot uncouple measurement error from bias variability. Significant group differences may be observed even if there is no bias present in any individual dataset. This renders the new indices in their current form unfit for empirical purposes. Our discussion focuses on fostering debate and ideas for new research to validate the potentially very important notion of biased attention being dynamic.

  17. A 13.56 MHz CMOS Active Rectifier With Switched-Offset and Compensated Biasing for Biomedical Wireless Power Transfer Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan Lu; Wing-Hung Ki

    2014-06-01

    A full-wave active rectifier switching at 13.56 MHz with compensated bias current for a wide input range for wirelessly powered high-current biomedical implants is presented. The four diodes of a conventional passive rectifier are replaced by two cross-coupled PMOS transistors and two comparator- controlled NMOS switches to eliminate diode voltage drops such that high voltage conversion ratio and power conversion efficiency could be achieved even at low AC input amplitude |VAC|. The comparators are implemented with switched-offset biasing to compensate for the delays of active diodes and to eliminate multiple pulsing and reverse current. The proposed rectifier uses a modified CMOS peaking current source with bias current that is quasi-inversely proportional to the supply voltage to better control the reverse current over a wide AC input range (1.5 to 4 V). The rectifier was fabricated in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS N-well process with active area of 0.0651 mm(2). For the proposed rectifier measured at |VAC| = 3.0 V, the voltage conversion ratios are 0.89 and 0.93 for RL=500 Ω and 5 kΩ, respectively, and the measured power conversion efficiencies are 82.2% to 90.1% with |VAC| ranges from 1.5 to 4 V for RL=500 Ω.

  18. Biases in GNSS-Data Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaer, S. C.; Dach, R.; Lutz, S.; Meindl, M.; Beutler, G.

    2010-12-01

    Within the Global Positioning System (GPS) traditionally different types of pseudo-range measurements (P-code, C/A-code) are available on the first frequency that are tracked by the receivers with different technologies. For that reason, P1-C1 and P1-P2 Differential Code Biases (DCB) need to be considered in a GPS data processing with a mix of different receiver types. Since the Block IIR-M series of GPS satellites also provide C/A-code on the second frequency, P2-C2 DCB need to be added to the list of biases for maintenance. Potential quarter-cycle biases between different phase observables (specifically L2P and L2C) are another issue. When combining GNSS (currently GPS and GLONASS), careful consideration of inter-system biases (ISB) is indispensable, in particular when an adequate combination of individual GLONASS clock correction results from different sources (using, e.g., different software packages) is intended. Facing the GPS and GLONASS modernization programs and the upcoming GNSS, like the European Galileo and the Chinese Compass, an increasing number of types of biases is expected. The Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) is monitoring these GPS and GLONASS related biases for a long time based on RINEX files of the tracking network of the International GNSS Service (IGS) and in the frame of the data processing as one of the global analysis centers of the IGS. Within the presentation we give an overview on the stability of the biases based on the monitoring. Biases derived from different sources are compared. Finally, we give an outlook on the potential handling of such biases with the big variety of signals and systems expected in the future.

  19. Biased Brownian dynamics for rate constant calculation.

    OpenAIRE

    Zou, G; Skeel, R D; Subramaniam, S

    2000-01-01

    An enhanced sampling method-biased Brownian dynamics-is developed for the calculation of diffusion-limited biomolecular association reaction rates with high energy or entropy barriers. Biased Brownian dynamics introduces a biasing force in addition to the electrostatic force between the reactants, and it associates a probability weight with each trajectory. A simulation loses weight when movement is along the biasing force and gains weight when movement is against the biasing force. The sampl...

  20. Modifying interpretation biases in body dysmorphic disorder: Evaluation of a brief computerized treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Summers, Berta J; Cougle, Jesse R

    2016-12-01

    Individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD; N = 40) were enrolled in a randomized, four-session trial comparing interpretation bias modification (IBM) training designed to target social evaluation- and appearance-related interpretation biases with a placebo control training condition (PC). Sessions took place over the course of two weeks (two sessions per week). Analyses indicated that, relative to the PC condition, IBM led to a significant increase in benign biases and reduction in threat biases at post-treatment. IBM also led to greater reductions in BDD symptoms compared to PC, though this effect was present at high but not low levels of pre-treatment BDD symptoms. Additionally, compared to PC, IBM led to lower urge to check and lower fear in response to an in vivo appearance-related stressor (having their picture taken from different angles), though the latter effect was present only among those reporting elevated fear at pre-treatment. The effects of treatment on interpretation biases and BDD symptoms were largely maintained at a one-month follow-up assessment. Moderated-mediation analyses showed that change in threat bias mediated the effect of condition on post-treatment symptoms for individuals high in pre-treatment BDD symptoms. The current study provides preliminary support for the efficacy of IBM for BDD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. The human fallibility of scientists : Dealing with error and bias in academic research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veldkamp, Coosje

    2017-01-01

    THE HUMAN FALLIBILITY OF SCIENTISTS Dealing with error and bias in academic research Recent studies have highlighted that not all published findings in the scientific lit¬erature are trustworthy, suggesting that currently implemented control mechanisms such as high standards for the reporting of

  2. How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlach, Haley A.

    2016-01-01

    The “shape bias” describes the phenomenon that, after a certain point in development, children and adults generalize object categories based upon shape to a greater degree than other perceptual features. The focus of research on the shape bias has been to examine the types of information that learners attend to in one moment in time. The current work takes a different approach by examining whether learners' categorical biases are related to their retention of information across time. In three experiments, children's (N = 72) and adults' (N = 240) memory performance for features of objects was examined in relation to their categorical biases. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the number of shape matches chosen during the shape bias task significantly predicted shape memory. Moreover, children and adults with a shape bias were more likely to remember the shape of objects than they were the color and size of objects. Taken together, this work suggests the development of a shape bias may engender better memory for shape information. PMID:27454236

  3. The evolution of social learning rules: payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendal, Jeremy; Giraldeau, Luc-Alain; Laland, Kevin

    2009-09-21

    Humans and other animals do not use social learning indiscriminately, rather, natural selection has favoured the evolution of social learning rules that make selective use of social learning to acquire relevant information in a changing environment. We present a gene-culture coevolutionary analysis of a small selection of such rules (unbiased social learning, payoff-biased social learning and frequency-dependent biased social learning, including conformism and anti-conformism) in a population of asocial learners where the environment is subject to a constant probability of change to a novel state. We define conditions under which each rule evolves to a genetically polymorphic equilibrium. We find that payoff-biased social learning may evolve under high levels of environmental variation if the fitness benefit associated with the acquired behaviour is either high or low but not of intermediate value. In contrast, both conformist and anti-conformist biases can become fixed when environment variation is low, whereupon the mean fitness in the population is higher than for a population of asocial learners. Our examination of the population dynamics reveals stable limit cycles under conformist and anti-conformist biases and some highly complex dynamics including chaos. Anti-conformists can out-compete conformists when conditions favour a low equilibrium frequency of the learned behaviour. We conclude that evolution, punctuated by the repeated successful invasion of different social learning rules, should continuously favour a reduction in the equilibrium frequency of asocial learning, and propose that, among competing social learning rules, the dominant rule will be the one that can persist with the lowest frequency of asocial learning.

  4. Indicators of implicit and explicit social anxiety influence threat-related interpretive bias as a function of working memory capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elske eSalemink

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Interpretive biases play a crucial role in anxiety disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine factors that determine the relative strength of threat-related interpretive biases that are characteristic of individuals high in social anxiety. Different (dual process models argue that both implicit and explicit processes determine information processing biases and behaviour, and that their impact is moderated by the availability of executive resources such as working memory capacity (WMC. Based on these models, we expected indicators of implicit social anxiety to predict threat-related interpretive bias in individuals low, but not high in WMC. Indicators of explicit social anxiety should predict threat-related interpretive bias in individuals high, but not low in WMC. As expected, WMC moderated the impact of implicit social anxiety on threat-related interpretive bias, although the simple slope for individuals low in WMC was not statistically significant. The hypotheses regarding explicit social anxiety (with fear of negative evaluation used as an indicator were fully supported. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

  5. Rule-Based Reasoning Is Fast and Belief-Based Reasoning Can Be Slow: Challenging Current Explanations of Belief-Bias and Base-Rate Neglect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, Ian R.; Gibb, Maia; Thompson, Valerie A.

    2017-01-01

    It is commonly assumed that belief-based reasoning is fast and automatic, whereas rule-based reasoning is slower and more effortful. Dual-Process theories of reasoning rely on this speed-asymmetry explanation to account for a number of reasoning phenomena, such as base-rate neglect and belief-bias. The goal of the current study was to test this…

  6. Characterization of high-current, high-temperature superconductor current lead elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niemann, R.C.; Evans, D.J.; Fisher, B.L.; Brockenborough, W.E.; Roberts, P.R.; Rodenbush, A.J.

    1996-08-01

    The refrigeration loads of current leads for superconducting magnets can be significantly reduced by using high-temperature superconductor (HTS) leads. An HTS conductor type that is well suited for this application is a laminated sintered stack of HTS powder-in-tube (PIT) tapes. The superconducting elements are normally characterized by their manufacturer by measuring critical currents at 77 K in self field. Additional characterization, which correlates electrical performance at 77 K and at lower temperatures with applied magnetic fields, provides the current lead designer and conductor element manufacturer with critical information. For HTS conductor elements comprising a laminated and sintered stack of Bi-2223 PIT tapes having an alloyed Ag sheath, this characterization uses variable applied fields and operating temperatures

  7. Risk of bias assessment of randomised controlled trials in high-impact ophthalmology journals and general medical journals: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joksimovic, Lazar; Koucheki, Robert; Popovic, Marko; Ahmed, Yusuf; Schlenker, Matthew B; Ahmed, Iqbal Ike K

    2017-10-01

    Evidence-based treatments in ophthalmology are often based on the results of randomised controlled trials. Biased conclusions from randomised controlled trials may lead to inappropriate management recommendations. This systematic review investigates the prevalence of bias risk in randomised controlled trials published in high-impact ophthalmology journals and ophthalmology trials from general medical journals. Using Ovid MEDLINE, randomised controlled trials in the top 10 high-impact ophthalmology journals in 2015 were systematically identified and critically appraised for the prevalence of bias risk. Included randomised controlled trials were assessed in all domains of bias as defined by the Cochrane Collaboration. In addition, the prevalence of conflict of interest and industry sponsorship was investigated. A comparison with ophthalmology articles from high-impact general medical journals was performed. Of the 259 records that were screened from ophthalmology-specific journals, 119 trials met all inclusion criteria and were critically appraised. In total, 29.4% of domains had an unclear risk, 13.8% had a high risk and 56.8% had a low risk of bias. In comparison, ophthalmology articles from general medical journals had a lower prevalence of unclear risk (17.1%), higher prevalence of high risk (21.9%) and a higher prevalence of low risk domains (61.9%). Furthermore, 64.7% of critically appraised trials from ophthalmology-specific journals did not report any conflicts of interest, while 70.6% did not report an industry sponsor of their trial. In closing, it is essential that authors, peer reviewers and readers closely follow published risk of bias guidelines. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  8. Abstract analysis method facilitates filtering low-methodological quality and high-bias risk systematic reviews on psoriasis interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gómez-García, Francisco; Ruano, Juan; Aguilar-Luque, Macarena; Alcalde-Mellado, Patricia; Gay-Mimbrera, Jesús; Hernández-Romero, José Luis; Sanz-Cabanillas, Juan Luis; Maestre-López, Beatriz; González-Padilla, Marcelino; Carmona-Fernández, Pedro J; García-Nieto, Antonio Vélez; Isla-Tejera, Beatriz

    2017-12-29

    Article summaries' information and structure may influence researchers/clinicians' decisions to conduct deeper full-text analyses. Specifically, abstracts of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MA) should provide structured summaries for quick assessment. This study explored a method for determining the methodological quality and bias risk of full-text reviews using abstract information alone. Systematic literature searches for SRs and/or MA about psoriasis were undertaken on MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane database. For each review, quality, abstract-reporting completeness, full-text methodological quality, and bias risk were evaluated using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for abstracts (PRISMA-A), Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR), and ROBIS tools, respectively. Article-, author-, and journal-derived metadata were systematically extracted from eligible studies using a piloted template, and explanatory variables concerning abstract-reporting quality were assessed using univariate and multivariate-regression models. Two classification models concerning SRs' methodological quality and bias risk were developed based on per-item and total PRISMA-A scores and decision-tree algorithms. This work was supported, in part, by project ICI1400136 (JR). No funding was received from any pharmaceutical company. This study analysed 139 SRs on psoriasis interventions. On average, they featured 56.7% of PRISMA-A items. The mean total PRISMA-A score was significantly higher for high-methodological-quality SRs than for moderate- and low-methodological-quality reviews. SRs with low-bias risk showed higher total PRISMA-A values than reviews with high-bias risk. In the final model, only 'authors per review > 6' (OR: 1.098; 95%CI: 1.012-1.194), 'academic source of funding' (OR: 3.630; 95%CI: 1.788-7.542), and 'PRISMA-endorsed journal' (OR: 4.370; 95%CI: 1.785-10.98) predicted PRISMA-A variability. Reviews with a

  9. Dual-electrode biasing experiments in KT-5C device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu Yi; Lu Ronghua; Wang Chen; Pan Geshen; Wen Yizhi; Yu Changxuan; Ma Jinxiu; Wan Shude; Liu Wandong

    2005-01-01

    Based on the single biasing electrode experiments to optimize the confinement of plasma in the device of KT-5C tokamak, dual-biasing electrodes were inserted into the KT5C plasma for the first time to explore the enhancement of the effects of biasing and the mechanisms of the biasing. By means of applying different combinations of biasing voltages to the dual electrodes, the changes in E r , which is the key factor for boosting up the Er x B flow shear, were observed. The time evolution showed the inner electrode played a major role in dual-biasing, for it always drew a larger current than the outer one. The outer electrode made little influence. It turned out that the dual-biasing electrodes were as effective as a single one, in improving plasma confinement, for the mechanism of biasing was essentially an edge effect. (author)

  10. Can the variability in precipitation simulations across GCMs be reduced through sensible bias correction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Ha; Mehrotra, Rajeshwar; Sharma, Ashish

    2017-11-01

    This work investigates the performance of four bias correction alternatives for representing persistence characteristics of precipitation across 37 General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the CMIP5 data archive. The first three correction approaches are the Simple Monthly Bias Correction (SMBC), Equidistance Quantile Mapping (EQM), and Nested Bias Correction (NBC), all of which operate in the time domain, with a focus on representing distributional and moment attributes in the observed precipitation record. The fourth approach corrects for the biases in high- and low-frequency variability or persistence of the GCM time series in the frequency domain and is named as Frequency-based Bias Correction (FBC). The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) gridded precipitation data covering the global land surface is used as a reference dataset. The assessment focusses on current and future means, variability, and drought-related characteristics at different temporal and spatial scales. For the current climate, all bias correction approaches perform reasonably well at the global scale by reproducing the observed precipitation statistics. For the future climate, focus is drawn on the agreement of the attributes across the GCMs considered. The inter-model difference/spread of each attribute across the GCMs is used as a measure of this agreement. Our results indicate that out of the four bias correction approaches used, FBC provides the lowest inter-model spreads, specifically for persistence attributes, over most regions/ parts over the global land surface. This has significant implications for most hydrological studies where the effect of low-frequency variability is of considerable importance.

  11. Understanding and Overcoming Implicit Gender Bias in Plastic Surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Nicole A; Tannan, Shruti C; Kalliainen, Loree K

    2016-11-01

    Although explicit sex-based discrimination has largely been deemed unacceptable in professional settings, implicit gender bias persists and results in a significant lack of parity in plastic surgery and beyond. Implicit gender bias is the result of a complex interplay of cultural and societal expectations, learned behaviors, and standardized associations. As such, both male and female surgeons are subject to its influence. A review of the literature was conducted, examining theories of gender bias, current manifestations of gender bias in plastic surgery and other fields, and interventions designed to address gender bias. Multiple studies demonstrate persistent gender bias that impacts female physicians at all levels of training. Several institutions have enacted successful interventions to identify and address gender bias. Explicit gender bias has largely disappeared, yet unconscious or implicit gender bias persists. A wide-scale commitment to addressing implicit gender bias in plastic surgery is necessary and overdue. Recommendations include immediate actions that can be undertaken on an individual basis, and changes that should be implemented at a national and international level by leaders in the field.

  12. Hydrogen Permeation, and Mechanical and Tribological Behavior, of CrNx Coatings Deposited at Various Bias Voltages on IN718 by Direct Current Reactive Sputtering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Egor B. Kashkarov

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In the current work, the microstructure, hydrogen permeability, and properties of chromium nitride (CrNx thin films deposited on the Inconel 718 superalloy using direct current reactive sputtering are investigated. The influence of the substrate bias voltage on the crystal structure, mechanical, and tribological properties before and after hydrogen exposure was studied. It was found that increasing the substrate bias voltage leads to densification of the coating. X-ray diffraction (XRD results reveal a change from mixed fcc-CrN + hcp-Cr2N to the approximately stoichiometric hcp-Cr2N phase with increasing substrate bias confirmed by wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS. The texture coefficients of (113, (110, and (111 planes vary significantly with increasing substrate bias voltage. The hydrogen permeability was measured by gas-phase hydrogenation. The CrN coating deposited at 60 V with mixed c-CrN and (113 textured hcp-Cr2N phases exhibits the lowest hydrogen absorption at 873 K. It is suggested that the crystal orientation is only one parameter influencing the permeation resistance of the CrNx coating together with the film structure, the presence of mixing phases, and the packing density of the structure. After hydrogenation, the hardness increased for all coatings, which could be related to the formation of a Cr2O3 oxide film on the surface, as well as the defect formation after hydrogen loading. Tribological tests reveal that hydrogenation leads to a decrease of the friction coefficient by up to 40%. The lowest value of 0.25 ± 0.02 was reached for the CrNx coating deposited at 60 V after hydrogenation.

  13. Non-Gaussian halo assembly bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reid, Beth A.; Verde, Licia; Dolag, Klaus; Matarrese, Sabino; Moscardini, Lauro

    2010-01-01

    The strong dependence of the large-scale dark matter halo bias on the (local) non-Gaussianity parameter, f NL , offers a promising avenue towards constraining primordial non-Gaussianity with large-scale structure surveys. In this paper, we present the first detection of the dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias on halo formation history using N-body simulations. We also present an analytic derivation of the expected signal based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism. In excellent agreement with our analytic prediction, we find that the halo formation history-dependent contribution to the non-Gaussian halo bias (which we call non-Gaussian halo assembly bias) can be factorized in a form approximately independent of redshift and halo mass. The correction to the non-Gaussian halo bias due to the halo formation history can be as large as 100%, with a suppression of the signal for recently formed halos and enhancement for old halos. This could in principle be a problem for realistic galaxy surveys if observational selection effects were to pick galaxies occupying only recently formed halos. Current semi-analytic galaxy formation models, for example, imply an enhancement in the expected signal of ∼ 23% and ∼ 48% for galaxies at z = 1 selected by stellar mass and star formation rate, respectively

  14. Pixel detector bias supply and control using embedded multicore processors

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2099144; Akram Alomainy

    The aim of the project is to create a software controlled, open source, low footprint and low power high voltage bias supply and current monitor for a pixelated radiation sensor. The solution is based on the LT3905 integrated circuit and the multi-core XMOS xCore 200 microcontroller and it is intended to be used in a battery powered, mobile platform for educational settings.

  15. Emotional Encoding Context Leads to Memory Bias in Individuals with High Anxiety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher Lee

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available We investigated whether anxious individuals, who adopt an inherently negative mindset, demonstrate a particularly salient memory bias for words tainted by negative contexts. To this end, sequentially presented target words, overlayed onto negative or neutral pictures, were studied in separate blocks (within-subjects using a deep or shallow encoding instruction (between-subjects. Following study, in Test 1, participants completed separate recognition test blocks for the words overlayed onto the negative and the neutral contexts. Following this, in Test 2, participants completed a recognition test for the foils from each Test 1 block. We found a significant three-way interaction on Test 2, such that individuals with high anxiety who initially studied target words using a shallow encoding instruction, demonstrated significantly elevated memory for foils that were contained within the negative Test 1 block. Results show that during retrieval (Test 1, participants re-entered the mode of processing (negative or neutral engaged at encoding, tainting the encoding of foils with that same mode of processing. The findings suggest that individuals with high relative to low anxiety, adopt a particularly salient negative retrieval mode, and this creates a downstream bias in encoding and subsequent retrieval of otherwise neutral information.

  16. Recognizing and reducing cognitive bias in clinical and forensic neurology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satya-Murti, Saty; Lockhart, Joseph

    2015-10-01

    In medicine, cognitive errors form the basis of bias in clinical practice. Several types of bias are common and pervasive, and may lead to inaccurate diagnosis or treatment. Forensic and clinical neurology, even when aided by current technologies, are still dependent on cognitive interpretations, and therefore prone to bias. This article discusses 4 common biases that can lead the clinician astray. They are confirmation bias (selective gathering of and neglect of contradictory evidence); base rate bias (ignoring or misusing prevailing base rate data); hindsight bias (oversimplification of past causation); and good old days bias (the tendency for patients to misremember and exaggerate their preinjury functioning). We briefly describe strategies adopted from the field of psychology that could minimize bias. While debiasing is not easy, reducing such errors requires awareness and acknowledgment of our susceptibility to these cognitive distortions.

  17. Attentional Bias towards Positive Emotion Predicts Stress Resilience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thoern, Hanna A; Grueschow, Marcus; Ehlert, Ulrike; Ruff, Christian C; Kleim, Birgit

    2016-01-01

    There is extensive evidence for an association between an attentional bias towards emotionally negative stimuli and vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Less is known about whether selective attention towards emotionally positive stimuli relates to mental health and stress resilience. The current study used a modified Dot Probe task to investigate if individual differences in attentional biases towards either happy or angry emotional stimuli, or an interaction between these biases, are related to self-reported trait stress resilience. In a nonclinical sample (N = 43), we indexed attentional biases as individual differences in reaction time for stimuli preceded by either happy or angry (compared to neutral) face stimuli. Participants with greater attentional bias towards happy faces (but not angry faces) reported higher trait resilience. However, an attentional bias towards angry stimuli moderated this effect: The attentional bias towards happy faces was only predictive for resilience in those individuals who also endorsed an attentional bias towards angry stimuli. An attentional bias towards positive emotional stimuli may thus be a protective factor contributing to stress resilience, specifically in those individuals who also endorse an attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli. Our findings therefore suggest a novel target for prevention and treatment interventions addressing stress-related psychopathology.

  18. A perpendicular AC biased ferrite tuned cavity for the TRIUMF KAON factory booster synchrotron

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poirier, R.L.; Enegren, T.A.; Haddock, C.; Enchevich, I.

    1990-06-01

    The rf cavity for the booster synchrotron requires a frequency swing of 46 MHz at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. This will be accomplished using a tuner containing yttrium garnet ferrite where the bias field is perpendicular to the rf magnetic field. Conventional methods use parallel biased NiZn ferrite. Yttrium garnet ferrite possess a high electric quality factor. However the ac magnetizing circuit is much more complicated and special care must be taken to minimize the induced eddy current losses when designing the tuner. A dc biased prototype cavity was constructed and tested at Los Alamos. As part of the project definition study for the proposed KAON factory, this cavity has now been almost entirely rebuilt at TRIUMF with a completely redesigned tuner for ac bias operation. Measurements and test results will be reported. (Author) 2 refs., 8 figs

  19. Modular high-voltage bias generator powered by dual-looped self-adaptive wireless power transmission.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Kai; Huang, An-Feng; Li, Xiao-Ping; Guo, Shi-Zhong; Zhang, Han-Lu

    2015-04-01

    We proposed a modular high-voltage (HV) bias generator powered by a novel transmitter-sharing inductive coupled wireless power transmission technology, aimed to extend the generator's flexibility and configurability. To solve the problems caused through an uncertain number of modules, a dual-looped self-adaptive control method is proposed that is capable of tracking resonance frequency while maintaining a relatively stable induction voltage for each HV module. The method combines a phase-locked loop and a current feedback loop, which ensures an accurate resonance state and a relatively constant boost ratio for each module, simplifying the architecture of the boost stage and improving the total efficiency. The prototype was built and tested. The input voltage drop of each module is less than 14% if the module number varies from 3 to 10; resonance tracking is completed within 60 ms. The efficiency of the coupling structure reaches up to 95%, whereas the total efficiency approaches 73% for a rated output. Furthermore, this technology can be used in various multi-load wireless power supply applications.

  20. Preference for High Status Predicts Implicit Outgroup Bias among Children from Low-Status Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newheiser, Anna-Kaisa; Dunham, Yarrow; Merrill, Anna; Hoosain, Leah; Olson, Kristina R.

    2014-01-01

    Whereas members of high-status racial groups show ingroup preference when attitudes are measured implicitly, members of low-status racial groups--both adults and children--typically show no bias, potentially reflecting awareness of the ingroup's low status. We hypothesized that when status differences are especially pronounced, children from…

  1. Electron-beam-induced current measurements with applied bias provide insight to locally resolved acceptor concentrations at p-n junctions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Abou-Ras

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Electron-beam-induced current (EBIC measurements have been employed for the investigation of the local electrical properties existing at various types of electrical junctions during the past decades. In the standard configuration, the device under investigation is analyzed under short-circuit conditions. Further insight into the function of the electrical junction can be obtained when applying a bias voltage. The present work gives insight into how EBIC measurements at applied bias can be conducted at the submicrometer level, at the example of CuInSe2 solar cells. From the EBIC profiles acquired across ZnO/CdS/CuInSe2/Mo stacks exhibiting p-n junctions with different net doping densities in the CuInSe2 layers, values for the width of the space-charge region, w, were extracted. For all net doping densities, these values decreased with increasing applied voltage. Assuming a linear relationship between w2 and the applied voltage, the resulting net doping densities agreed well with the ones obtained by means of capacitance-voltage measurements.

  2. Super high voltage Schottky diode with low leakage current for x- and γ-ray detector application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosyachenko, L. A.; Sklyarchuk, V. M.; Sklyarchuk, O. F.; Maslyanchuk, O. L.; Gnatyuk, V. A.; Aoki, T.

    2009-01-01

    A significant improvement in x-/γ-ray detector performance has been achieved by forming both rectifying and near-Ohmic contacts by the deposition of Ni on opposite surfaces of semi-insulating CdTe crystals pretreated by special chemical etching and Ar-ion bombardment with different parameters. The reduced injection of the minority carriers from the near-Ohmic contact in the neutral part of the diode provides low leakage current even at high bias ( 2 at 2000 V and 293 K). The electrical properties of the detectors are well described quantitatively by the generation-recombination Sah-Noyce-Shockley theory excepting the high reverse voltage range where some injection of minority carriers takes place

  3. Ratio Bias and Policy Preferences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Rasmus Tue

    2016-01-01

    Numbers permeate modern political communication. While current scholarship on framing effects has focused on the persuasive effects of words and arguments, this article shows that framing of numbers can also substantially affect policy preferences. Such effects are caused by ratio bias, which...

  4. Investigation of Bias in Job Evaluation Ratings of Comparable Worth Study Participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mount, Michael K.; Ellis, Rebecca A.

    1987-01-01

    Investigated the effects of knowledge of current pay levels and perceived job gender on subsequent job evaluations. Confirmed the hypothesis that jobs with high pay levels would receive higher evaluations than jobs with low pay levels. Found evidence of a pro-female bias in the job evaluation ratings of 53 job evaluators. (Author/ABB)

  5. Prototyping global Earth System Models at high resolution: Representation of climate, ecosystems, and acidification in Eastern Boundary Currents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunne, J. P.; John, J. G.; Stock, C. A.

    2013-12-01

    The world's major Eastern Boundary Currents (EBC) such as the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) are critically important areas for global fisheries. Computational limitations have divided past EBC modeling into two types: high resolution regional approaches that resolve the strong meso-scale structures involved, and coarse global approaches that represent the large scale context for EBCs, but only crudely resolve only the largest scales of their manifestation. These latter global studies have illustrated the complex mechanisms involved in the climate change and acidification response in these regions, with the CCLME response dominated not by local adjustments but large scale reorganization of ocean circulation through remote forcing of water-mass supply pathways. While qualitatively illustrating the limitations of regional high resolution studies in long term projection, these studies lack the ability to robustly quantify change because of the inability of these models to represent the baseline meso-scale structures of EBCs. In the present work, we compare current generation coarse resolution (one degree) and a prototype next generation high resolution (1/10 degree) Earth System Models (ESMs) from NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in representing the four major EBCs. We review the long-known temperature biases that the coarse models suffer in being unable to represent the timing and intensity of upwelling-favorable winds, along with lack of representation of the observed high chlorophyll and biological productivity resulting from this upwelling. In promising contrast, we show that the high resolution prototype is capable of representing not only the overall meso-scale structure in physical and biogeochemical fields, but also the appropriate offshore extent of temperature anomalies and other EBC characteristics. Results for chlorophyll were mixed; while high resolution chlorophyll in EBCs were strongly enhanced over the coarse resolution

  6. A Floquet-Green's function approach to mesoscopic transport under ac bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, B H; Cao, J C

    2008-01-01

    The current response of a mesoscopic system under a periodic ac bias is investigated by combining the Floquet theorem and the nonequilibrium Green's function method. The band structure of the lead under ac bias is fully taken into account by using appropriate self-energies in an enlarged Floquet space. Both the retarded and lesser Green's functions are obtained in the Floquet basis to account for the interference and interaction effects. In addition to the external ac bias, the time-varying Coulomb interaction, which is treated at the self-consistent Hartree-Fock level, provides another internal ac field. The numerical results show that the time-varying Coulomb field yields decoherence and reduces the ringing behavior of the current response to a harmonic bias

  7. Attention bias to emotional information in children as a function of maternal emotional disorders and maternal attention biases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waters, Allison M; Forrest, Kylee; Peters, Rosie-Mae; Bradley, Brendan P; Mogg, Karin

    2015-03-01

    Children of parents with emotional disorders have an increased risk for developing anxiety and depressive disorders. Yet the mechanisms that contribute to this increased risk are poorly understood. The present study aimed to examine attention biases in children as a function of maternal lifetime emotional disorders and maternal attention biases. There were 134 participants, including 38 high-risk children, and their mothers who had lifetime emotional disorders; and 29 low-risk children, and their mothers without lifetime emotional disorders. Mothers and children completed a visual probe task with emotional face pairs presented for 500 ms. Attention bias in children did not significantly differ solely as a function of whether or not their mothers had lifetime emotional disorders. However, attention bias in high-risk children was significantly related to their mothers' attention bias. Specifically, children of mothers with lifetime emotional disorders showed a greater negative attention bias if their mothers had a greater tendency to direct attention away from positive information. This study was cross-sectional in nature, and therefore unable to assess long-term predictive effects. Also, just one exposure duration of 500 ms was utilised. Attention bias for negative information is greater in offspring of mothers who have lifetime emotional disorders and a reduced positive bias, which could be a risk marker for the development of emotional disorders in children.

  8. Emissive limiter bias experiment for improved confinement of tokamaks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choe, W.; Ono, M.; Darrow, D.S.; Pribyl, P.A.; Liberati, J.R.; Taylor, R.J.

    1992-01-01

    Experiments have been performed in Ohmic discharges of the UCLA CCT tokamak with a LaB 6 biased limiter, capable of emitting energetic electrons as a technique to improve confinement in tokamaks. To study the effects of emitted electrons, the limiter position, bias voltage, and plasma position were varied. The results have shown that the plasma positioning with respect to the emissive limiter plays an important role in obtaining H-mode plasmas. The emissive cathode must be located close to the last closed flux surface in order to charge up the plasma. As the cathode is moved closer to the wall, the positioning of the plasma becomes more critical since the plasma can easily detach from the cathode and reattach to the wall, resulting in the termination of H-mode. The emissive capability appears to be important for operating at lower bias voltage and reducing impurity levels in the plasma. With a heated cathode, transition to H-mode was observed for V bias ≤ 50 V and I inj ≥ 30 A. At a lower cathode heater current, a higher bias voltage is required for the transition. Moreover, with a lower cathode heater current, the time delay for inducing H-mode becomes longer, which can be attributed to the required time for the self-heating of the cathode to reach the emissive temperature. From this result, we conclude that the capacity for emission can significantly improve the performance of limiter biasing for inducing H-mode transition. With L-mode plasmas, the injection current flowing out of the cathode was generally higher than 100 A

  9. Design of high current bunching system and high power fast Faraday cup for high current LEBT at VECC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anuraag Misra, A.; Pandit, B.V.S.; Gautam Pal, C.

    2011-01-01

    A high current microwave ion source as described is currently operational at VECC. We are able to optimize 6.4 mA of proton current in the LEBT line of ion source. The cyclotron type of accelerators accept only a fraction of DC ion beam coming from ion source so a ion beam buncher is needed to increase the accepted current into the cyclotron. The buncher described in this paper is unique in its kind as it has to handle high beam loading power upto 400 W as it is designed to bunch few mA of proton beam currents at 80 keV beam energy. A sinusoidal quarter wave RF structure has been chosen to bunch the high current beam due to high Q achievable in comparison with other configurations. This buncher has been designed using CST Microwave studio 3D advanced code since the design frequency of our buncher is 42 MHz, we have provided the RF and vacuum window near the drift tube of buncher to avoid vacuum and multipacting problems and to keep maximum volume in air region. There is a provision of multipacting interlocks to shut off amplifier during multipacting. We have carried out a detailed electromagnetic and thermal design of the buncher in CST Microwave studio and simulated values of unloaded Q was calculated be 4000. We have estimated a power of 400 W to achieve gap (designed) voltage of 10 kV. This buncher is in advanced stage of fabrication. A high power fast Faraday cup is also designed to characterize the above mentioned high current bunching system. The fast Faraday cup is designed in 50 Ω coaxial geometry to transmit fast pulse of bunched ion beam. The design of Faraday cup was completed using ANSYS HFSS and a bandwidth of 1.75 GHz was achieved this faraday cup design was different from conventional Faraday cup design as we have designed the support and cooling lines at such a place on Faraday cup which do not disturb the electrical impedance of the cup. (author)

  10. Biased managers, organizational design, and incentive provision

    OpenAIRE

    Moreira, Humberto Ataíde; Costa, Cristiano Machado; Ferreira, Daniel Bernardo Soares

    2004-01-01

    Rio de Janeiro We model the tradeoff between the balance and the strength of incentives implicit in the choice between hierarchical and matrix organizational structures. We show that managerial biases determine which structure is optimal: hierarchical forms are preferred when biases are low, while matrix structures are preferred when biases are high.

  11. Direct readout flux locked loop circuit with automatic tuning of bias current and bias flux for high-Tc SQUID

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirano, T.; Nagaishi, T.; Itozaki, H.

    1999-01-01

    Measurement of high-frequency magnetic signals has been required from some SQUID applications. We fabricated a high-T c SQUID magnetic sensor system that can treat high-frequency signals. This system is composed of a SQUID, a preamplifier circuit, a flux locked loop (FLL) circuit with I/O and a personal computer and a PC card. We used the FLL circuit with no modulation to treat the high-frequency signal and to simplify the circuit. This system can treat a signal from dc to 1 MHz. All the sequence from tuning the SQUID to data acquisition can be done by a personal computer. This system successfully realized easy operation of SQUID measurement. (author)

  12. White and Black American Children’s Implicit Intergroup Bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newheiser, Anna-Kaisa; Olson, Kristina R.

    2011-01-01

    Despite a decline in explicit prejudice, adults and children from majority groups (e.g., White Americans) often express bias implicitly, as assessed by the Implicit Association Test. In contrast, minority-group (e.g., Black American) adults on average show no bias on the IAT. In the present research, representing the first empirical investigation of whether Black children’s IAT responses parallel those of Black adults, we examined implicit bias in 7–11-year-old White and Black American children. Replicating previous findings with adults, whereas White children showed a robust ingroup bias, Black children showed no bias. Additionally, we investigated the role of valuing status in the development of implicit bias. For Black children, explicit preference for high status predicted implicit outgroup bias: Black children who explicitly expressed high preference for rich (vs. poor) people showed an implicit preference for Whites comparable in magnitude to White children’s ingroup bias. Implications for research on intergroup bias are discussed. PMID:22184478

  13. An Investigation of Carbon-Doping-Induced Current Collapse in GaN-on-Si High Electron Mobility Transistors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    An-Jye Tzou

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports the successful fabrication of a GaN-on-Si high electron mobility transistor (HEMT with a 1702 V breakdown voltage (BV and low current collapse. The strain and threading dislocation density were well-controlled by 100 pairs of AlN/GaN superlattice buffer layers. Relative to the carbon-doped GaN spacer layer, we grew the AlGaN back barrier layer at a high temperature, resulting in a low carbon-doping concentration. The high-bandgap AlGaN provided an effective barrier for blocking leakage from the channel to substrate, leading to a BV comparable to the ordinary carbon-doped GaN HEMTs. In addition, the AlGaN back barrier showed a low dispersion of transiently pulsed ID under substrate bias, implying that the buffer traps were effectively suppressed. Therefore, we obtained a low-dynamic on-resistance with this AlGaN back barrier. These two approaches of high BV with low current collapse improved the device performance, yielding a device that is reliable in power device applications.

  14. Impact of Anodal and Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex during Attention Bias Modification: An Eye-Tracking Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Heeren

    Full Text Available People with anxiety disorders show an attentional bias for threat (AB, and Attention Bias Modification (ABM procedures have been found to reduce this bias. However, the underlying processes accounting for this effect remain poorly understood. One explanation suggests that ABM requires the modification of attention control, driven by the recruitment of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC. In the present double-blind study, we examined whether modifying left DLPFC activation influences the effect of ABM on AB. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS to directly modulate cortical excitability of the left DLPFC during an ABM procedure designed to reduce AB to threat. Anodal tDCS increases excitability, whereas cathodal tDCS decreases it. We randomly assigned highly trait-anxious individuals to one of three conditions: 1 ABM combined with cathodal tDCS, 2 ABM combined with anodal tDCS, or 3 ABM combined with sham tDCS. We assessed the effects of these manipulations on both reaction times and eye-movements on a task indexing AB. Results indicate that combining ABM and anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC reduces the total duration that participants' gaze remains fixated on threat, as assessed using eye-tracking measurement. However, in contrast to previous studies, there were no changes in AB from baseline to post-training for participants that received ABM without tDCS. As the tendency to maintain attention to threat is known to play an important role in the maintenance of anxiety, the present findings suggest that anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC may be considered as a promising tool to reduce the maintenance of gaze to threat. Implications for future translational research combining ABM and tDCS are discussed.

  15. Analysis and Countermeasure Study on DC Bias of Main Transformer in a City

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, PengChao; Wang, Hongtao; Song, Xinpu; Gu, Jun; Liu, yong; Wu, weili

    2017-07-01

    According to the December 2015 Guohua Beijing thermal power transformer DC magnetic bias phenomenon, the monitoring data of 24 hours of direct current is analyzed. We find that the maximum DC current is up to 25 and is about 30s for the trend cycle, on this basis, then, of the geomagnetic storm HVDC and subway operation causes comparison of the mechanism, and make a comprehensive analysis of the thermal power plant’s geographical location, surrounding environment and electrical contact etc.. The results show that the main reason for the DC bias of Guohua thermal power transformer is the operation of the subway, and the change of the DC bias current is periodic. Finally, of Guohua thermal power transformer DC magnetic bias control method is studied, the simulation results show that the method of using neutral point with small resistance or capacitance can effectively inhibit the main transformer neutral point current.

  16. Overweight people have low levels of implicit weight bias, but overweight nations have high levels of implicit weight bias.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maddalena Marini

    Full Text Available Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context - particularly the national prevalence of obesity - predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/ between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals and national (i.e., across nations level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT. The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels.

  17. High current density ion source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    King, H.J.

    1977-01-01

    A high-current-density ion source with high total current is achieved by individually directing the beamlets from an electron bombardment ion source through screen and accelerator electrodes. The openings in these screen and accelerator electrodes are oriented and positioned to direct the individual beamlets substantially toward a focus point. 3 figures, 1 table

  18. Australia's Bond Home Bias

    OpenAIRE

    Anil V. Mishra; Umaru B. Conteh

    2014-01-01

    This paper constructs the float adjusted measure of home bias and explores the determinants of bond home bias by employing the International Monetary Fund's high quality dataset (2001 to 2009) on cross-border bond investment. The paper finds that Australian investors' prefer investing in countries with higher economic development and more developed bond markets. Exchange rate volatility appears to be an impediment for cross-border bond investment. Investors prefer investing in countries with ...

  19. Impact of Selection Bias on Estimation of Subsequent Event Risk

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hu, Yi Juan; Schmidt, Amand F.; Dudbridge, Frank; Holmes, Michael V; Brophy, James M.; Tragante, Vinicius; Li, Ziyi; Liao, Peizhou; Quyyumi, Arshed A.; McCubrey, Raymond O.; Horne, Benjamin D.; Hingorani, Aroon D; Asselbergs, Folkert W; Patel, Riyaz S.; Long, Qi; Åkerblom, Axel; Algra, Ale; Allayee, Hooman; Almgren, Peter; Anderson, Jeffrey L.; Andreassi, Maria G.; Anselmi, Chiara V.; Ardissino, Diego; Arsenault, Benoit J.; Ballantyne, Christie M.; Baranova, Ekaterina V.; Behloui, Hassan; Bergmeijer, Thomas O; Bezzina, Connie R; Bjornsson, Eythor; Body, Simon C.; Boeckx, Bram; Boersma, Eric H.; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bogaty, Peter; Braund, Peter S; Breitling, Lutz P.; Brenner, Hermann; Briguori, Carlo; Brugts, Jasper J.; Burkhardt, Ralph; Cameron, Vicky A.; Carlquist, John F.; Carpeggiani, Clara; Carruthers, Kathryn F.; Casu, Gavino; Condorelli, Gianluigi; Cresci, Sharon; Danchin, Nicolas; de Faire, Ulf; Deanfield, John; Delgado, Graciela; Deloukas, Panos; Direk, Kenan; Doughty, Robert N.; Drexel, Heinz; Duarte, Nubia E.; Dubé, Marie Pierre; Dufresne, Line; Engert, James C; Eriksson, Niclas; Fitzpatrick, Natalie; Foco, Luisa; Ford, Ian; Fox, Keith A; Gigante, Bruna; Gijsberts, Crystel M.; Girelli, Domenico; Gong, Yan; Gudbjartsson, Daniel F.; Hagström, Emil; Hartiala, Jaana; Hazen, Stanley L.; Held, Claes; Helgadottir, Anna; Hemingway, Harry; Heydarpour, Mahyar; Hoefer, Imo E.; Hovingh, G. Kees; Hubacek, Jaroslav A; James, Stefan; Johnson, Julie A; Jukema, J Wouter; Kaczor, Marcin P.; Kaminski, Karol A.; Kettner, Jiri; Kiliszek, Marek; Kleber, Marcus; Klungel, Olaf H.; Kofink, Daniel; Kohonen, Mika; Kotti, Salma; Kuukasjärvi, Pekka; Lagerqvist, Bo; Lambrechts, Diether; Lang, Chim C; Laurikka, Jari O.; Leander, Karin; Lee, Vei Vei; Lehtimäki, Terho; Leiherer, Andreas; Lenzini, Petra A.; Levin, Daniel; Lindholm, Daniel; Lokki, Marja-Liisa; Lotufo, Paulo A; Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka; Mahmoodi, B. Khan; Maitland-Van Der Zee, Anke H.; Martinelli, Nicola; März, Winfried; Marziliano, Nicola; McPherson, Ruth; Melander, Olle; Mons, Ute; Muehlschlegel, Jochen D.; Muhlestein, Joseph B.; Nelson, Cristopher P.; Cheh, Chris Newton; Olivieri, Oliviero; Opolski, Grzegorz; Palmer, Colin Na; Pare, Guillaume; Pasterkamp, Gerard; Pepine, Carl J; Pepinski, Witold; Pereira, Alexandre C.; Pilbrow, Anna P.; Pilote, Louise; Pitha, Jan; Ploski, Rafal; Richards, A. Mark; Saely, Christoph H.; Samani, Nilesh J; Samman-Tahhan, Ayman; Sanak, Marek; Sandesara, Pratik B.; Sattar, Naveed; Scholz, Markus; Siegbahn, Agneta; Simon, Tabassome; Sinisalo, Juha; Smith, J. Gustav; Spertus, John A.; Stefansson, Kari; Stewart, Alexandre F R; Stott, David J.; Szczeklik, Wojciech; Szpakowicz, Anna; Tanck, Michael W.T.; Tang, Wilson H.; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Ten Berg, Jur M.; Teren, Andrej; Thanassoulis, George; Thiery, Joachim; Thorgeirsson, Gudmundur; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Timmis, Adam; Trompet, Stella; Van de Werf, Frans; van der Graaf, Yolanda; Van Der Haarst, Pim; van der Laan, Sander W; Vilmundarson, Ragnar O.; Virani, Salim S.; Visseren, Frank L J; Vlachopoulou, Efthymia; Wallentin, Lars; Waltenberger, Johannes; Wauters, Els; Wilde, Arthur A M

    2017-01-01

    Background - Studies of recurrent or subsequent disease events may be susceptible to bias caused by selection of subjects who both experience and survive the primary indexing event. Currently, the magnitude of any selection bias, particularly for subsequent time-to-event analysis in genetic

  20. Anxiety, fatigue, and attentional bias toward threat in patients with hematopoietic tumors.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kohei Koizumi

    Full Text Available Cancer patients with hematopoietic tumors exhibit particularly high rates of anxiety disorders and depression, and often develop negative affect. In addition, psychological problems experienced by cancer patients impair their quality of life. When cancer patients feel anxious, they tend to direct their attention toward stimuli associated with threat in the surrounding environment. If attentional bias occurs in patients with hematopoietic tumors, who are at particular risk of developing negative affect, resolution of the bias could be useful in alleviating their anxiety. The current study examined the association between attentional bias and negative affect in patients with hematopoietic tumors and tested the hypothesis that negative affect would be more severe in those who exhibited greater attentional bias. Twenty-seven patients with hematopoietic tumors participated in the study. Reaction time (RT was measured as the time between the presentation of the threatening and neutral images, and the subject's button press to indicate choice (neutral expressions. Eight combinations of "threatening" expressions with high emotional valence and "neutral" expressions with low emotional valence were presented. The images used to measure attentional bias were taken from the Japanese Female Facial Expression Database and had been rated as expressive of anger, sadness, or neutrality, with predetermined emotional valence. Psychological testing was performed with the Profile of Mood States (POMS. To examine the association between attentional bias and negative affect, we calculated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients for RTs and POMS. Subjects' mean RT was 882.9 (SD = 100.9 ms, and 19 of the 27 subjects exhibited slower RTs relative to healthy individuals. RT was significantly positively correlated with Tension-Anxiety (r = .679, p < .01 and Fatigue (r = .585, p < .01 subscale scores. The results of the study suggested that attentional bias toward

  1. Is bias in the eye of the beholder? A vignette study to assess recognition of cognitive biases in clinical case workups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwaan, Laura; Monteiro, Sandra; Sherbino, Jonathan; Ilgen, Jonathan; Howey, Betty; Norman, Geoffrey

    2017-02-01

    Many authors have implicated cognitive biases as a primary cause of diagnostic error. If this is so, then physicians already familiar with common cognitive biases should consistently identify biases present in a clinical workup. The aim of this paper is to determine whether physicians agree on the presence or absence of particular biases in a clinical case workup and how case outcome knowledge affects bias identification. We conducted a web survey of 37 physicians. Each participant read eight cases and listed which biases were present from a list provided. In half the cases the outcome implied a correct diagnosis; in the other half, it implied an incorrect diagnosis. We compared the number of biases identified when the outcome implied a correct or incorrect primary diagnosis. Additionally, the agreement among participants about presence or absence of specific biases was assessed. When the case outcome implied a correct diagnosis, an average of 1.75 cognitive biases were reported; when incorrect, 3.45 biases (F=71.3, p<0.00001). Individual biases were reported from 73% to 125% more often when an incorrect diagnosis was implied. There was no agreement on presence or absence of individual biases, with κ ranging from 0.000 to 0.044. Individual physicians are unable to agree on the presence or absence of individual cognitive biases. Their judgements are heavily influenced by hindsight bias; when the outcome implies a diagnostic error, twice as many biases are identified. The results present challenges for current error reduction strategies based on identification of cognitive biases. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  2. Current Correlations in a Majorana Beam Splitter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haim, Arbel; Berg, Erez; von Oppen, Felix; Oreg, Yuval

    We study current correlations in a T-junction composed of a grounded topological superconductor and of two normal-metal leads which are biased at a voltage V. We show that the existence of an isolated Majorana zero mode in the junction dictates a universal behavior for the cross correlation of the currents through the two normal-metal leads of the junction. The cross correlation is negative and approaches zero at high bias voltages as - 1 / V . This behavior is robust in the presence of disorder and multiple transverse channels, and persists at finite temperatures. In contrast, an accidental low-energy Andreev bound state gives rise to non-universal behavior of the cross correlation. We employ numerical transport simulations to corroborate our conclusions.

  3. In situ scanning tunnelling microscopy of redox molecules. Coherent electron transfer at large bias voltages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Jingdong; Kuznetsov, A.M.; Ulstrup, Jens

    2003-01-01

    Theories of in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) of molecules with redox levels near the substrate and tip Fermi levels point to 'spectroscopic' current-overpotential features. Prominent features require a narrow 'probing tip', i.e. a small bias voltage, eV(bias), compared...... a broad tunnelling current-overpotential range at a constant (large) bias voltage of +0.2 V. The current is found to be constant over a 0.25 V overpotential range, which covers roughly the range where the oxidised and reduced redox levels are located within the energy tip. STM contrast and apparent...... of previous theoretical work on in situ STM of redox molecules, to large bias voltages, \\eV(bias)\\ > E-r. Large bias voltages give tunnelling contrasts independent of the overpotential over a broad range, as both the oxidised and reduced redox levels are located within the 'energy tip' between the substrate...

  4. Biasing of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caliano, Giosue; Matrone, Giulia; Savoia, Alessandro Stuart

    2017-02-01

    Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) represent an effective alternative to piezoelectric transducers for medical ultrasound imaging applications. They are microelectromechanical devices fabricated using silicon micromachining techniques, developed in the last two decades in many laboratories. The interest for this novel transducer technology relies on its full compatibility with standard integrated circuit technology that makes it possible to integrate on the same chip the transducers and the electronics, thus enabling the realization of extremely low-cost and high-performance devices, including both 1-D or 2-D arrays. Being capacitive transducers, CMUTs require a high bias voltage to be properly operated in pulse-echo imaging applications. The typical bias supply residual ripple of high-quality high-voltage (HV) generators is in the millivolt range, which is comparable with the amplitude of the received echo signals, and it is particularly difficult to minimize. The aim of this paper is to analyze the classical CMUT biasing circuits, highlighting the features of each one, and to propose two novel HV generator architectures optimized for CMUT biasing applications. The first circuit proposed is an ultralow-residual ripple (generator that uses an extremely stable sinusoidal power oscillator topology. The second circuit employs a commercially available integrated step-up converter characterized by a particularly efficient switching topology. The circuit is used to bias the CMUT by charging a buffer capacitor synchronously with the pulsing sequence, thus reducing the impact of the switching noise on the received echo signals. The small area of the circuit (about 1.5 cm 2 ) makes it possible to generate the bias voltage inside the probe, very close to the CMUT, making the proposed solution attractive for portable applications. Measurements and experiments are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new approaches presented.

  5. Brief Report: Developing Spatial Frequency Biases for Face Recognition in Autism and Williams Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonard, Hayley C.; Annaz, Dagmara; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette; Johnson, Mark H.

    2011-01-01

    The current study investigated whether contrasting face recognition abilities in autism and Williams syndrome could be explained by different spatial frequency biases over developmental time. Typically-developing children and groups with Williams syndrome and autism were asked to recognise faces in which low, middle and high spatial frequency…

  6. Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification Training via Smartphones

    OpenAIRE

    Ranming Yang; Ranming Yang; Lixia Cui; Feng Li; Jing Xiao; Qin Zhang; Tian P. S. Oei; Tian P. S. Oei

    2017-01-01

    Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three...

  7. Reasoning, biases and dual processes: The lasting impact of Wason (1960).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Jonathan St B T

    2016-10-01

    Wason (1960) published a relatively short experimental paper, in which he introduced the 2-4-6 problem as a test of inductive reasoning. This paper became one of the most highly cited to be published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology and is significant for a number of reasons. First, the 2-4-6 task itself was ingenious and yielded evidence of error and bias in the intelligent participants who attempted it. Research on the 2-4-6 problem continues to the present day. More importantly, it was Wason's first paper on reasoning and one which made strong claims for bias and irrationality in a period dominated by rationalist writers like Piaget. It set in motion the study of cognitive biases in thinking and reasoning, well before the start of Tversky and Kahneman's famous heuristics and biases research programme. I also show here something for which Wason has received insufficient credit. It was Wason's work on this task and his later studies of his four card selection task that led to the first development of the dual process theory of reasoning which is so dominant in the current literature on the topic more than half a century later.

  8. A CURRENT MIRROR BASED TWO STAGE CMOS CASCODE OP-AMP FOR HIGH FREQUENCY APPLICATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    RAMKRISHNA KUNDU

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a low power, high slew rate, high gain, ultra wide band two stage CMOS cascode operational amplifier for radio frequency application. Current mirror based cascoding technique and pole zero cancelation technique is used to ameliorate the gain and enhance the unity gain bandwidth respectively, which is the novelty of the circuit. In cascading technique a common source transistor drive a common gate transistor. The cascoding is used to enhance the output resistance and hence improve the overall gain of the operational amplifier with less complexity and less power dissipation. To bias the common gate transistor, a current mirror is used in this paper. The proposed circuit is designed and simulated using Cadence analog and digital system design tools of 45 nanometer CMOS technology. The simulated results of the circuit show DC gain of 63.62 dB, unity gain bandwidth of 2.70 GHz, slew rate of 1816 V/µs, phase margin of 59.53º, power supply of the proposed operational amplifier is 1.4 V (rail-to-rail ±700 mV, and power consumption is 0.71 mW. This circuit specification has encountered the requirements of radio frequency application.

  9. Attachment insecurity, biased perceptions of romantic partners' negative emotions, and hostile relationship behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overall, Nickola C; Fletcher, Garth J O; Simpson, Jeffry A; Fillo, Jennifer

    2015-05-01

    In the current research, we tested the extent to which attachment insecurity produces inaccurate and biased perceptions of intimate partners' emotions and whether more negative perceptions of partners' emotions elicit the damaging behavior often associated with attachment insecurity. Perceptions of partners' emotions as well as partners' actual emotions were assessed multiple times in couples' conflict discussions (Study 1) and daily during a 3-week period in 2 independent samples (Study 2). Using partners' reports of their own emotional experiences as the accuracy benchmark, we simultaneously tested whether attachment insecurity was associated with the degree to which individuals (a) accurately detected shifts in their partners' negative emotions (tracking accuracy), and (b) perceived their partners were feeling more negative relationship-related emotions than they actually experienced (directional bias). Highly avoidant perceivers were equally accurate at tracking their partners' changing emotions compared to less avoidant individuals (tracking accuracy), but they overestimated the intensity of their partners' negative emotions to a greater extent than less avoidant individuals (directional bias). In addition, more negative perceptions of partners' emotions triggered more hostile and defensive behavior in highly avoidant perceivers both during conflict discussions (Study 1) and in daily life (Study 2). In contrast, attachment anxiety was not associated with tracking accuracy, directional bias, or hostile reactions to perceptions of their partners' negative emotions. These findings demonstrate the importance of assessing biased perceptions in actual relationship interactions and reveal that biased perceptions play an important role in activating the defenses of avoidantly attached people. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Analysis of microstructural evolution driven by production bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woo, C.H.; Semenov, A.A.; Singh, B.N.

    1993-01-01

    The concept of production bias was first considered in the preceding workshop in this series at Silkeborg in 1989. Since then, much work has been done to investigate the validity of the concept, and its usefulness in complementing the current theory of microstructure evolution based solely on the sink bias (e.g., dislocation bias) as a driving force. Comparison of the theory with experimental results clearly supports the concept. The present paper reviews and summarizes these investigations, and arrives at the following conclusions: a) the concept of production bias is consistent with the results of other works which indicates that, under cascade damage conditions, the effective rate of point-defect production is only a small fraction of the NRT displacement production rate; b) the defect accumulation under cascade damage conditions can be understood in terms of production bias; and c) although the existence of conventional dislocation bias due to point-defect dislocation interaction is not questioned, it does not seem to play any major role in the accumulation of defects under cascade damage conditions at elevated temperatures. (orig.)

  11. A scanning tunneling microscope break junction method with continuous bias modulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beall, Edward; Yin, Xing; Waldeck, David H; Wierzbinski, Emil

    2015-09-28

    Single molecule conductance measurements on 1,8-octanedithiol were performed using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction method with an externally controlled modulation of the bias voltage. Application of an AC voltage is shown to improve the signal to noise ratio of low current (low conductance) measurements as compared to the DC bias method. The experimental results show that the current response of the molecule(s) trapped in the junction and the solvent media to the bias modulation can be qualitatively different. A model RC circuit which accommodates both the molecule and the solvent is proposed to analyze the data and extract a conductance for the molecule.

  12. Expressive Suppression Tendencies, Projection Bias in Memory of Negative Emotions, and Well-Being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Valerie T; Overall, Nickola C; Madden, Helen; Low, Rachel S T

    2018-02-01

    The current research extends prior research linking negative emotions and emotion regulation tendencies to memory by investigating whether (a) naturally occurring negative emotions during routine weekly life are associated with more negatively biased memories of prior emotional experiences-a bias called projection; (b) tendencies to regulate emotions via expressive suppression are associated with greater projection bias in memory of negative emotions; and (c) greater projection bias in memory is associated with poorer future well-being. Participants (N = 308) completed a questionnaire assessing their general tendencies to engage in expressive suppression. Then, every week for 7 weeks, participants reported on (a) the negative emotions they experienced across the current week (e.g., "This week, I felt 'sad'"), (b) their memories of the negative emotions they experienced the prior week (e.g., "Last week, I felt 'sad'"), and (c) their well-being. First, participants demonstrated significant projection bias in memory: Greater negative emotions in a given week were associated with remembering emotions in the prior week more negatively than those prior emotions were originally reported. Second, projection bias in memory of negative emotions was greater for individuals who reported greater tendencies to regulate emotions via expressive suppression. Third, greater projection bias in memory of negative emotions was associated with reductions in well-being across weeks. These 3 novel findings indicate that (a) current negative emotions bias memory of past emotions, (b) this memory bias is magnified for people who habitually use expressive suppression to regulate emotions, and (c) this memory bias may undermine well-being over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Detection of oxygen vacancy defect states in capacitors with ultrathin Ta2O5 films by zero-bias thermally stimulated current spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lau, W.S.; Leong, L.L.; Han, Taejoon; Sandler, Nathan P.

    2003-01-01

    Defect state D (0.8 eV) was experimentally detected in Ta 2 O 5 capacitors with ultrathin (physical thickness 2 O 5 films using zero-bias thermally stimulated current spectroscopy and correlated with leakage current. Defect state D can be more efficiently suppressed by using N 2 O rapid thermal annealing (RTA) instead of using O 2 RTA for postdeposition annealing and by using TiN instead of Al for top electrode. We believe that defect D is probably the first ionization level of the oxygen vacancy deep double donor. Other important defects are Si/O-vacancy complex single donors and C/O-vacancy complex single donors

  14. Short Communication: Gender Bias and Stigmatization against ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Short Communication: Gender Bias and Stigmatization against Women Living with ... In Ethiopia, HIV/AIDS is highly stigmatized due to the fact that sexual ... bias, socio-economic situations and traditional beliefs contribute, individually and in ...

  15. A High Precision Laser-Based Autofocus Method Using Biased Image Plane for Microscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao-Chen Gu

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This study designs and accomplishes a high precision and robust laser-based autofocusing system, in which a biased image plane is applied. In accordance to the designed optics, a cluster-based circle fitting algorithm is proposed to calculate the radius of the detecting spot from the reflected laser beam as an essential factor to obtain the defocus value. The experiment conduct on the experiment device achieved novel performance of high precision and robustness. Furthermore, the low demand of assembly accuracy makes the proposed method a low-cost and realizable solution for autofocusing technique.

  16. Improving sensitivity of residual current transformers to high frequency earth fault currents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Czapp Stanislaw

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available For protection against electric shock in low voltage systems residual current devices are commonly used. However, their proper operation can be interfered when high frequency earth fault current occurs. Serious hazard of electrocution exists then. In order to detect such a current, it is necessary to modify parameters of residual current devices, especially the operating point of their current transformer. The authors proposed the modification in the structure of residual current devices. This modification improves sensitivity of residual current devices when high frequency earth fault current occurs. The test of the modified residual current device proved that the authors’ proposition is appropriate.

  17. High temperature superconductor current leads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeimetz, B.; Liu, H.K.; Dou, S.X.

    1996-01-01

    Full text: The use of superconductors in high electrical current applications (magnets, transformers, generators etc.) usually requires cooling with liquid Helium, which is very expensive. The superconductor itself produces no heat, and the design of Helium dewars is very advanced. Therefore most of the heat loss, i.e. Helium consumption, comes from the current lead which connects the superconductor with its power source at room temperature. The current lead usually consists of a pair of thick copper wires. The discovery of the High Temperature Superconductors makes it possible to replace a part of the copper with superconducting material. This drastically reduces the heat losses because a) the superconductor generates no resistive heat and b) it is a very poor thermal conductor compared with the copper. In this work silver-sheathed superconducting tapes are used as current lead components. The work comprises both the production of the tapes and the overall design of the leads, in order to a) maximize the current capacity ('critical current') of the superconductor, b) minimize the thermal conductivity of the silver clad, and c) optimize the cooling conditions

  18. Reducing AC-Winding Losses in High-Current High-Power Inductors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nymand, Morten; Madawala, Udaya K.; Andersen, Michael Andreas E.

    2009-01-01

    Foil windings are preferable in high-current high-power inductors to realize compact designs and to reduce dc-current losses. At high frequency, however, proximity effect will cause very significant increase in ac resistance in multi-layer windings, and lead to high ac winding losses. This paper ...

  19. Bias-dependent oscillatory electron transport of monatomic sulfur chains

    KAUST Repository

    Yu, Jing-Xin; Cheng, Yan; Sanvito, Stefano; Chen, Xiang-Rong

    2012-01-01

    The bias-dependent oscillatory electron transport of monatomic sulfur chains sandwiched between gold electrodes is investigated with density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function method. At zero bias, in contrast to the typical odd-even oscillations observed in most metallic chains, we find that the conductance oscillates with a period of four atoms. However, as the bias voltage is increased the current displays a two-atom periodicity. This emerges gradually, first for the longer chains and then, at voltages larger than 0.7 V, for lengths. The oscillatory behaviors are analyzed by the density of states and the energy-dependent and bias-dependent transmission coefficients. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

  20. Bias-dependent oscillatory electron transport of monatomic sulfur chains

    KAUST Repository

    Yu, Jing-Xin

    2012-01-01

    The bias-dependent oscillatory electron transport of monatomic sulfur chains sandwiched between gold electrodes is investigated with density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green\\'s function method. At zero bias, in contrast to the typical odd-even oscillations observed in most metallic chains, we find that the conductance oscillates with a period of four atoms. However, as the bias voltage is increased the current displays a two-atom periodicity. This emerges gradually, first for the longer chains and then, at voltages larger than 0.7 V, for lengths. The oscillatory behaviors are analyzed by the density of states and the energy-dependent and bias-dependent transmission coefficients. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

  1. A self-powered thin-film radiation detector using intrinsic high-energy current

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zygmanski, Piotr, E-mail: pzygmanski@LROC.HARVARD.EDU, E-mail: Erno-Sajo@uml.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (United States); Sajo, Erno, E-mail: pzygmanski@LROC.HARVARD.EDU, E-mail: Erno-Sajo@uml.edu [Department of Physics and Applied Physics, Medical Physics Program, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854 (United States)

    2016-01-15

    Purpose: The authors introduce a radiation detection method that relies on high-energy current (HEC) formed by secondary charged particles in the detector material, which induces conduction current in an external readout circuit. Direct energy conversion of the incident radiation powers the signal formation without the need for external bias voltage or amplification. The detector the authors consider is a thin-film multilayer device, composed of alternating disparate electrically conductive and insulating layers. The optimal design of HEC detectors consists of microscopic or nanoscopic structures. Methods: Theoretical and computational developments are presented to illustrate the salient properties of the HEC detector and to demonstrate its feasibility. In this work, the authors examine single-sandwiched and periodic layers of Cu and Al, and Au and Al, ranging in thickness from 100 nm to 300 μm and separated by similarly sized dielectric gaps, exposed to 120 kVp x-ray beam (half-value thickness of 4.1 mm of Al). The energy deposition characteristics and the high-energy current were determined using radiation transport computations. Results: The authors found that in a dual-layer configuration, the signal is in the measurable range. For a defined total detector thickness in a multilayer structure, the signal sharply increases with decreasing thickness of the high-Z conductive layers. This paper focuses on the computational results while a companion paper reports the experimental findings. Conclusions: Significant advantages of the device are that it does not require external power supply and amplification to create a measurable signal; it can be made in any size and geometry, including very thin (sub-millimeter to submicron) flexible curvilinear forms, and it is inexpensive. Potential applications include medical dosimetry (both in vivo and external), radiation protection, and other settings where one or more of the above qualities are desired.

  2. High current induction linacs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barletta, W.; Faltens, A.; Henestroza, E.; Lee, E.

    1994-07-01

    Induction linacs are among the most powerful accelerators in existence. They have accelerated electron bunches of several kiloamperes, and are being investigated as drivers for heavy ion driven inertial confinement fusion (HIF), which requires peak beam currents of kiloamperes and average beam powers of some tens of megawatts. The requirement for waste transmutation with an 800 MeV proton or deuteron beam with an average current of 50 mA and an average power of 40 MW lies midway between the electron machines and the heavy ion machines in overall difficulty. Much of the technology and understanding of beam physics carries over from the previous machines to the new requirements. The induction linac allows use of a very large beam aperture, which may turn out to be crucial to reducing beam loss and machine activation from the beam halo. The major issues addressed here are transport of high intensity beams, availability of sources, efficiency of acceleration, and the state of the needed technology for the waste treatment application. Because of the transformer-like action of an induction core and the accompanying magnetizing current, induction linacs make the most economic sense and have the highest efficiencies with large beam currents. Based on present understanding of beam transport limits, induction core magnetizing current requirements, and pulse modulators, the efficiencies could be very high. The study of beam transport at high intensities has been the major activity of the HIF community. Beam transport and sources are limiting at low energies but are not significant constraints at the higher energies. As will be shown, the proton beams will be space-charge-dominated, for which the emittance has only a minor effect on the overall beam diameter but does determine the density falloff at the beam edge

  3. Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti/Al co-doped DLC films: Dependence on sputtering current, source gas, and substrate bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guo, Ting; Kong, Cuicui; Li, Xiaowei; Guo, Peng; Wang, Zhenyu; Wang, Aiying

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Ti/Al co-doped diamond-like carbon films were fabricated by a hybrid ion beam method. • Process parameters affected the structure and chemical state of co-doped Ti and Al. • The relation between microstructure and properties was investigated systematically. • The guidance to tailor the Ti/Al-DLC films with high performance was provided. - Abstract: Co-doping two metal elements into diamond-like carbon (DLC) films can reach the desirable combined properties, but the preparation and commercialized application of metal co-doped DLC films with well-defined structural properties are currently hindered by the non-comprehensive understanding of structural evolutions under different process parameters. Here, we fabricated the Ti/Al-DLC films using a unique hybrid ion beam system which enabled the independent control of metal content and carbon structure. The evolutions of microstructure, residual compressive stress and mechanical properties induced by the different process parameters including sputtering currents, C_2H_2 or CH_4 source gases and bias voltages were investigated systematically in order to perform in-depth analysis on the relation between the structure and properties in Ti/Al-DLC films. Results revealed that the variations of process parameters seriously affected the concentration and chemical bond state of co-doped Ti/Al atoms in amorphous carbon matrix or incident energies of C ions, which brought the complicated effect on amorphous carbon structures, accounting for the change of residual compressive stress, hardness and toughness. The present results provide the guidance for suitable, effective parameters selection to tailor the Ti/Al-DLC films with high performance for further applications.

  4. Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti/Al co-doped DLC films: Dependence on sputtering current, source gas, and substrate bias

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guo, Ting [Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China); School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444 (China); Kong, Cuicui [Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China); Ningbo University, Ningbo 315201 (China); Li, Xiaowei, E-mail: lixw@nimte.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China); Guo, Peng; Wang, Zhenyu [Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China); Wang, Aiying, E-mail: aywang@nimte.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China)

    2017-07-15

    Highlights: • Ti/Al co-doped diamond-like carbon films were fabricated by a hybrid ion beam method. • Process parameters affected the structure and chemical state of co-doped Ti and Al. • The relation between microstructure and properties was investigated systematically. • The guidance to tailor the Ti/Al-DLC films with high performance was provided. - Abstract: Co-doping two metal elements into diamond-like carbon (DLC) films can reach the desirable combined properties, but the preparation and commercialized application of metal co-doped DLC films with well-defined structural properties are currently hindered by the non-comprehensive understanding of structural evolutions under different process parameters. Here, we fabricated the Ti/Al-DLC films using a unique hybrid ion beam system which enabled the independent control of metal content and carbon structure. The evolutions of microstructure, residual compressive stress and mechanical properties induced by the different process parameters including sputtering currents, C{sub 2}H{sub 2} or CH{sub 4} source gases and bias voltages were investigated systematically in order to perform in-depth analysis on the relation between the structure and properties in Ti/Al-DLC films. Results revealed that the variations of process parameters seriously affected the concentration and chemical bond state of co-doped Ti/Al atoms in amorphous carbon matrix or incident energies of C ions, which brought the complicated effect on amorphous carbon structures, accounting for the change of residual compressive stress, hardness and toughness. The present results provide the guidance for suitable, effective parameters selection to tailor the Ti/Al-DLC films with high performance for further applications.

  5. Assessing Projection Bias in Consumers' Food Preferences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiziana de-Magistris

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to test whether projection bias exists in consumers' purchasing decisions for food products. To achieve our aim, we used a non-hypothetical experiment (i.e., experimental auction, where hungry and non-hungry participants were incentivized to reveal their willingness to pay (WTP. The results confirm the existence of projection bias when consumers made their decisions on food products. In particular, projection bias existed because currently hungry participants were willing to pay a higher price premium for cheeses than satiated ones, both in hungry and satiated future states. Moreover, participants overvalued the food product more when they were delivered in the future hungry condition than in the satiated one. Our study provides clear, quantitative and meaningful evidence of projection bias because our findings are based on economic valuation of food preferences. Indeed, the strength of this study is that findings are expressed in terms of willingness to pay which is an interpretable amount of money.

  6. Dynamic range of low-voltage cascode current mirrors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Erik; Shah, Peter Jivan

    1995-01-01

    Low-voltage cascode current mirrors are reviewed with respect to the design limitations imposed if all transistors in the mirror are required to operate in the saturation region. It is found that both a lower limit and an upper limit exist for the cascode transistor bias voltage. Further, the use....... The proposed configuration has the advantage of simplicity combined with a complete elimination of the need for fixed bias voltages or bias currents in the current mirror. A disadvantage is that it requires a higher input voltage to the current mirror...

  7. High-speed and efficient silicon modulator based on forward-biased pin diodes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suguru eAkiyama

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Silicon modulators, which use the free-carrier-plasma effect, were studied, both analytically and experimentally. It was demonstrated that the loss-efficiency product, a-VpL, was a suitable figure of merit for silicon modulators that enabled their intrinsic properties to be compared. Subsequently, the dependence of VpL on frequency was expressed by using the electrical parameters of a phase shifter when the modulator was operated by assuming a simple driving configuration. A diode-based modulator operated in forward biased mode was expected from analyses to provide more efficient operation than that in reversed mode at high frequencies due to its large capacitance. We obtained an a-VpL of 9.5 dB-V at 12.5 GHz in experiments by using the fabricated phase shifter with pin diodes operated in forward biased mode. This a-VpL was comparable to the best modulators operated in depletion mode. The modulator exhibited a clear eye opening at 56 Gb/s operated by 2 V peak-to-peak signals that was achieved by incorporating such a phase shifter into a ring resonator.

  8. Approach bias modification training and consumption: A review of the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kakoschke, Naomi; Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

    2017-01-01

    Recent theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence have suggested that biased cognitive processing is an important contributor to unhealthy behaviour. Approach bias modification is a novel intervention in which approach biases for appetitive cues are modified. The current review of the literature aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of modifying approach bias for harmful consumption behaviours, including alcohol use, cigarette smoking, and unhealthy eating. Relevant publications were identified through a search of four electronic databases (PsycINFO, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and Scopus) that were conducted between October and December 2015. Eligibility criteria included the use of a human adult sample, at least one session of avoidance training, and an outcome measure related to the behaviour of interest. The fifteen identified publications (comprising 18 individual studies) were coded on a number of characteristics, including consumption behaviour, participants, task, training and control conditions, number of training sessions and trials, outcome measure, and results. The results generally showed positive effects of approach-avoidance training, including reduced consumption behaviour in the laboratory, lower relapse rates, and improvements in self-reported measures of behaviour. Importantly, all studies (with one exception) that reported favourable consumption outcomes also demonstrated successful reduction of the approach bias for appetitive cues. Thus, the current review concluded that approach bias modification is effective for reducing both approach bias and unhealthy consumption behaviour. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Practical investigation of the gate bias effect on the reverse recovery behavior of the body diode in power MOSFETs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lindberg-Poulsen, Kristian; Petersen, Lars Press; Ouyang, Ziwei

    2014-01-01

    This work considers an alternative method of reducing the body diode reverse recovery by taking advantage of the MOSFET body effect, and applying a bias voltage to the gate before reverse recovery. A test method is presented, allowing the accurate measurement of voltage and current waveforms during...... reverse recovery at high di=dt. Different bias voltages and dead times are combined, giving a loss map which makes it possible to evaluate the practical efficacy of gate bias on reducing the MOSFET body diode reverse recovery, while comparing it to the well known methods of dead time optimization...

  10. Optimistic Bias, Risk Factors, and Development of High Blood Pressure and Obesity among African American Adolescents in Mississippi (USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monique S. White

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is linked to hypertension among African American youth. Optimistic bias influences behavior of youth causing them to underestimate their susceptibility to negative health outcomes. This study explored adolescent behaviors and prevalence of high blood pressure and obesity in a school district. We examined the relationship between individual health risk practices and optimistic bias on health outcomes; 433 African American high school students were administered a survey and had their obesity and blood pressure measured by the school nurse. Canonical correlational analyses were used to examine relationships between health risk practices and descriptive statistics for optimistic bias and health outcomes. Engaging in moderate exercise for at least 30 min in the last 7 days and lower blood pressure was the only statistically significant relationship. Two-thirds of the students did not perceive themselves to be at risk of developing cardiovascular disease with males at greater risk than females, despite the presence of clinical risk factors for hypertension and obesity. Reducing health optimistic bias is an effective way of motivating young people to adopt more positive behaviors using educational institutions to implement intervention programs that promote positive health behavior as a way to reduce health disparities.

  11. Electronically Tunable Current-Mode Quadrature Oscillator Using Single MCDTA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Li

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a modified current differencing transconductance amlpifier (MCDTA and the MCDTA based quadrature oscillator. The oscillator is current-mode and provides current output from high output impedance terminals. The circuit uses only one MCDTA and two grounded capacitors, and is easy to be integrated. Its oscillation frequency can be tuned electronically by tuning bias currents of MCDTA. Finally, frequency error is analyzed. The results of circuit simulations are in agreement with theory.

  12. Bivariate quadratic method in quantifying the differential capacitance and energy capacity of supercapacitors under high current operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goh, Chin-Teng; Cruden, Andrew

    2014-11-01

    Capacitance and resistance are the fundamental electrical parameters used to evaluate the electrical characteristics of a supercapacitor, namely the dynamic voltage response, energy capacity, state of charge and health condition. In the British Standards EN62391 and EN62576, the constant capacitance method can be further improved with a differential capacitance that more accurately describes the dynamic voltage response of supercapacitors. This paper presents a novel bivariate quadratic based method to model the dynamic voltage response of supercapacitors under high current charge-discharge cycling, and to enable the derivation of the differential capacitance and energy capacity directly from terminal measurements, i.e. voltage and current, rather than from multiple pulsed-current or excitation signal tests across different bias levels. The estimation results the author achieves are in close agreement with experimental measurements, within a relative error of 0.2%, at various high current levels (25-200 A), more accurate than the constant capacitance method (4-7%). The archival value of this paper is the introduction of an improved quantification method for the electrical characteristics of supercapacitors, and the disclosure of the distinct properties of supercapacitors: the nonlinear capacitance-voltage characteristic, capacitance variation between charging and discharging, and distribution of energy capacity across the operating voltage window.

  13. Properties of high current RFQ injectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schempp, A.; Goethe, J.W.

    1996-01-01

    RFQ linacs are efficient, compact low energy ion structures, which have found numerous applications. They use electrical rf focusing and can capture, bunch and transmit high current ion beams. Some recent development and new projects like a heavy ion injectors for a cyclotron, and the status of the work on high current high duty factor RFQs will be discussed. (author)

  14. Properties of high current RFQ injectors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schempp, A.; Goethe, J.W. [Frankfurt Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Angewandte Physik

    1996-12-31

    RFQ linacs are efficient, compact low energy ion structures, which have found numerous applications. They use electrical rf focusing and can capture, bunch and transmit high current ion beams. Some recent development and new projects like a heavy ion injectors for a cyclotron, and the status of the work on high current high duty factor RFQs will be discussed. (author) 2 refs.

  15. Sympathetic bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, David M; Peart, Sandra J

    2008-06-01

    We wish to deal with investigator bias in a statistical context. We sketch how a textbook solution to the problem of "outliers" which avoids one sort of investigator bias, creates the temptation for another sort. We write down a model of the approbation seeking statistician who is tempted by sympathy for client to violate the disciplinary standards. We give a simple account of one context in which we might expect investigator bias to flourish. Finally, we offer tentative suggestions to deal with the problem of investigator bias which follow from our account. As we have given a very sparse and stylized account of investigator bias, we ask what might be done to overcome this limitation.

  16. Bias modification training can alter approach bias and chocolate consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schumacher, Sophie E; Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

    2016-01-01

    Recent evidence has demonstrated that bias modification training has potential to reduce cognitive biases for attractive targets and affect health behaviours. The present study investigated whether cognitive bias modification training could be applied to reduce approach bias for chocolate and affect subsequent chocolate consumption. A sample of 120 women (18-27 years) were randomly assigned to an approach-chocolate condition or avoid-chocolate condition, in which they were trained to approach or avoid pictorial chocolate stimuli, respectively. Training had the predicted effect on approach bias, such that participants trained to approach chocolate demonstrated an increased approach bias to chocolate stimuli whereas participants trained to avoid such stimuli showed a reduced bias. Further, participants trained to avoid chocolate ate significantly less of a chocolate muffin in a subsequent taste test than participants trained to approach chocolate. Theoretically, results provide support for the dual process model's conceptualisation of consumption as being driven by implicit processes such as approach bias. In practice, approach bias modification may be a useful component of interventions designed to curb the consumption of unhealthy foods. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Spatial Working Memory Capacity Predicts Bias in Estimates of Location

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, L. Elizabeth; Landy, David; Salthouse, Timothy A.

    2016-01-01

    Spatial memory research has attributed systematic bias in location estimates to a combination of a noisy memory trace with a prior structure that people impose on the space. Little is known about intraindividual stability and interindividual variation in these patterns of bias. In the current work, we align recent empirical and theoretical work on…

  18. Using Machine Learning to Predict MCNP Bias

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grechanuk, Pavel Aleksandrovi [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2018-01-09

    For many real-world applications in radiation transport where simulations are compared to experimental measurements, like in nuclear criticality safety, the bias (simulated - experimental keff) in the calculation is an extremely important quantity used for code validation. The objective of this project is to accurately predict the bias of MCNP6 [1] criticality calculations using machine learning (ML) algorithms, with the intention of creating a tool that can complement the current nuclear criticality safety methods. In the latest release of MCNP6, the Whisper tool is available for criticality safety analysts and includes a large catalogue of experimental benchmarks, sensitivity profiles, and nuclear data covariance matrices. This data, coming from 1100+ benchmark cases, is used in this study of ML algorithms for criticality safety bias predictions.

  19. On the Borders of Harmful and Helpful Beauty Biases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Agthe

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Research with European Caucasian samples demonstrates that attractiveness-based biases in social evaluation depend on the constellation of the sex of the evaluator and the sex of the target: Whereas people generally show positive biases toward attractive opposite-sex persons, they show less positive or even negative biases toward attractive same-sex persons. By examining these biases both within and between different ethnicities, the current studies provide new evidence for both the generalizability and the specificity of these attractiveness-based social perception biases. Examining within-ethnicity effects, Study 1 is the first to demonstrate that samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds parallel the finding of European Caucasian samples: The advantageous or adverse effects of attractiveness depend on the gender constellation of the evaluator and the evaluated person. Examining between-ethnicity effects, Study 2 found that these attractiveness-based biases emerge almost exclusively toward targets of the evaluator’s own ethnic background; these biases were reduced or eliminated for cross-ethnicity evaluations and interaction intentions. We discuss these findings in light of evolutionary principles and reflect on potential interactions between culture and evolved cognitive mechanisms.

  20. Cognitive bias in clinical practice - nurturing healthy skepticism among medical students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatti, Alysha

    2018-01-01

    Errors in clinical reasoning, known as cognitive biases, are implicated in a significant proportion of diagnostic errors. Despite this knowledge, little emphasis is currently placed on teaching cognitive psychology in the undergraduate medical curriculum. Understanding the origin of these biases and their impact on clinical decision making helps stimulate reflective practice. This article outlines some of the common types of cognitive biases encountered in the clinical setting as well as cognitive debiasing strategies. Medical educators should nurture healthy skepticism among medical students by raising awareness of cognitive biases and equipping them with robust tools to circumvent such biases. This will enable tomorrow's doctors to improve the quality of care delivered, thus optimizing patient outcomes.

  1. Biased divertor performance under auxiliary heating conditions on the TdeV tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Decoste, R.; Lachambre, J.L.; Demers, Y.

    1994-01-01

    Plasma biasing has been shown on TdeV in the ohmic regime to be very promising for divertor applications. Negative biasing, with shortened SOL density gradients, improves the divertor performance, whereas positive biasing, with longer gradients, does not do much for the divertor. The next objectives were to extrapolate those results to auxiliary heated plasmas and optimize/simplify the biasing geometry for future upgrades. New results are now available with an improved divertor geometry and auxiliary heating/current drive provided by a new lower hybrid (LH) system. The new geometry, optimized for positive biasing with predictably acceptable negative biasing performances, allows for a fair comparison between the two polarities. (author) 4 refs., 5 figs

  2. Combination of biased forecasts: Bias correction or bias based weights?

    OpenAIRE

    Wenzel, Thomas

    1999-01-01

    Most of the literature on combination of forecasts deals with the assumption of unbiased individual forecasts. Here, we consider the case of biased forecasts and discuss two different combination techniques resulting in an unbiased forecast. On the one hand we correct the individual forecasts, and on the other we calculate bias based weights. A simulation study gives some insight in the situations where we should use the different methods.

  3. Estimation bias and bias correction in reduced rank autoregressions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Heino Bohn

    2017-01-01

    This paper characterizes the finite-sample bias of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in a reduced rank vector autoregression and suggests two simulation-based bias corrections. One is a simple bootstrap implementation that approximates the bias at the MLE. The other is an iterative root...

  4. Mechanisms of attentional selection bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with high-trait anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Luyao; Cui, Lixia; Zhang, Qin; Dong, Xiaofei; Shi, Guangyuan

    2018-03-07

    There are still some controversies that attentional bias to negative emotions in individuals with high-trait anxiety (HTA), as compare with those with low-trait anxiety (LTA), occurs in the engagement or disengagement facet of attentional selectivity and whether this attentional bias is affected by negative emotional types. In this study, we explored the different attentional selectivity mechanisms for threatening emotions of anger and disgust between individuals with HTA and LTA using the variant attentional-probe paradigm. The results showed that under the engagement condition, the HTA group's attentional bias index of the anger mood was negative and was significantly less than the disgusting mood (positive) and that the P1 was smaller with angry faces as compared with neutral faces, which was separate from the results of the disgusted faces, having a significant difference with neutral faces on P1 component. In the LTA group, under the disengagement condition, the attentional bias index of the disgusting mood was significantly bigger than the attentional bias index of the anger mood. Moreover, the P1 of the disgusted faces was significantly bigger than the P1 of the angry faces. The topographical maps were also made to reveal the different neural underpinnings. The results suggested that there were different mechanisms of selective attentional bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with HTA. HTA individuals were characterized by facilitated attentional engagement with angry faces and impaired attentional engagement with disgusted faces. LTA individuals had different neural underpinnings and had impaired attentional disengagement with disgusted faces.

  5. Optimal classifier selection and negative bias in error rate estimation: an empirical study on high-dimensional prediction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boulesteix Anne-Laure

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In biometric practice, researchers often apply a large number of different methods in a "trial-and-error" strategy to get as much as possible out of their data and, due to publication pressure or pressure from the consulting customer, present only the most favorable results. This strategy may induce a substantial optimistic bias in prediction error estimation, which is quantitatively assessed in the present manuscript. The focus of our work is on class prediction based on high-dimensional data (e.g. microarray data, since such analyses are particularly exposed to this kind of bias. Methods In our study we consider a total of 124 variants of classifiers (possibly including variable selection or tuning steps within a cross-validation evaluation scheme. The classifiers are applied to original and modified real microarray data sets, some of which are obtained by randomly permuting the class labels to mimic non-informative predictors while preserving their correlation structure. Results We assess the minimal misclassification rate over the different variants of classifiers in order to quantify the bias arising when the optimal classifier is selected a posteriori in a data-driven manner. The bias resulting from the parameter tuning (including gene selection parameters as a special case and the bias resulting from the choice of the classification method are examined both separately and jointly. Conclusions The median minimal error rate over the investigated classifiers was as low as 31% and 41% based on permuted uninformative predictors from studies on colon cancer and prostate cancer, respectively. We conclude that the strategy to present only the optimal result is not acceptable because it yields a substantial bias in error rate estimation, and suggest alternative approaches for properly reporting classification accuracy.

  6. Gender Inequality among Japanese High School Teachers: Women Teachers' Resistance to Gender Bias in Occupational Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyajima, Tomomi

    2008-01-01

    This study explores gender inequality in the occupational culture of Japanese high school teachers with special focus on women teachers' resistance to gender-biased practices. It examines the effectiveness of official and informal teacher training programmes in raising awareness of gender issues. Through an ethnographic case study conducted in…

  7. Higher levels of depression are associated with reduced global bias in visual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Fockert, Jan W; Cooper, Andrew

    2014-04-01

    Negative moods have been associated with a tendency to prioritise local details in visual processing. The current study investigated the relation between depression and visual processing using the Navon task, a standard task of local and global processing. In the Navon task, global stimuli are presented that are made up of many local parts, and the participants are instructed to report the identity of either a global or a local target shape. Participants with a low self-reported level of depression showed evidence of the expected global processing bias, and were significantly faster at responding to the global, compared with the local level. By contrast, no such difference was observed in participants with high levels of depression. The reduction of the global bias associated with high levels of depression was only observed in the overall speed of responses to global (versus local) targets, and not in the level of interference produced by the global (versus local) distractors. These results are in line with recent findings of a dissociation between local/global processing bias and interference from local/global distractors, and support the claim that depression is associated with a reduction in the tendency to prioritise global-level processing.

  8. Attention biases in preoccupation with body image: An ERP study of the role of social comparison and automaticity when processing body size.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uusberg, Helen; Peet, Krista; Uusberg, Andero; Akkermann, Kirsti

    2018-03-17

    Appearance-related attention biases are thought to contribute to body image disturbances. We investigated how preoccupation with body image is associated with attention biases to body size, focusing on the role of social comparison processes and automaticity. Thirty-six women varying on self-reported preoccupation compared their actual body size to size-modified images of either themselves or a figure-matched peer. Amplification of earlier (N170, P2) and later (P3, LPP) ERP components recorded under low vs. high concurrent working memory load were analyzed. Women with high preoccupation exhibited an earlier bias to larger bodies of both self and peer. During later processing stages, they exhibited a stronger bias to enlarged as well as reduced self-images and a lack of sensitivity to size-modifications of the peer-image. Working memory load did not affect these biases systematically. Current findings suggest that preoccupation with body image involves an earlier attention bias to weight increase cues and later over-engagement with own figure. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Comparison of electron cloud simulation and experiments in the high-current experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, R.H.; Friedman, A.; Covo, M. Kireeff; Lund, S.M.; Molvik, A.W.; Bieniosek, F.M.; Seidl, P.A.; Vay, J.-L.; Verboncoeur, J.; Stoltz, P.; Veitzer, S.

    2004-01-01

    A set of experiments has been performed on the High-Current Experiment (HCX) facility at LBNL, in which the ion beam is allowed to collide with an end plate and thereby induce a copious supply of desorbed electrons. Through the use of combinations of biased and grounded electrodes positioned in between and downstream of the quadrupole magnets, the flow of electrons upstream into the magnets can be turned on or off. Properties of the resultant ion beam are measured under each condition. The experiment is modeled via a full three-dimensional, two species (electron and ion) particle simulation, as well as via reduced simulations (ions with appropriately chosen model electron cloud distributions, and a high-resolution simulation of the region adjacent to the end plate). The three-dimensional simulations are the first of their kind and the first to make use of a timestep-acceleration scheme that allows the electrons to be advanced with a timestep that is not small compared to the highest electron cyclotron period. The simulations reproduce qualitative aspects of the experiments, illustrate some unanticipated physical effects, and serve as an important demonstration of a developing simulation capability

  10. All in its proper time: monitoring the emergence of a memory bias for novel, arousing-negative words in individuals with high and low trait anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eden, Annuschka Salima; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Keuper, Katharina; Junghöfer, Markus; Laeger, Inga; Zwanzger, Peter; Dobel, Christian

    2014-01-01

    The well-established memory bias for arousing-negative stimuli seems to be enhanced in high trait-anxious persons and persons suffering from anxiety disorders. We monitored the emergence and development of such a bias during and after learning, in high and low trait anxious participants. A word-learning paradigm was applied, consisting of spoken pseudowords paired either with arousing-negative or neutral pictures. Learning performance during training evidenced a short-lived advantage for arousing-negative associated words, which was not present at the end of training. Cued recall and valence ratings revealed a memory bias for pseudowords that had been paired with arousing-negative pictures, immediately after learning and two weeks later. This held even for items that were not explicitly remembered. High anxious individuals evidenced a stronger memory bias in the cued-recall test, and their ratings were also more negative overall compared to low anxious persons. Both effects were evident, even when explicit recall was controlled for. Regarding the memory bias in anxiety prone persons, explicit memory seems to play a more crucial role than implicit memory. The study stresses the need for several time points of bias measurement during the course of learning and retrieval, as well as the employment of different measures for learning success.

  11. All in its proper time: monitoring the emergence of a memory bias for novel, arousing-negative words in individuals with high and low trait anxiety.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annuschka Salima Eden

    Full Text Available The well-established memory bias for arousing-negative stimuli seems to be enhanced in high trait-anxious persons and persons suffering from anxiety disorders. We monitored the emergence and development of such a bias during and after learning, in high and low trait anxious participants. A word-learning paradigm was applied, consisting of spoken pseudowords paired either with arousing-negative or neutral pictures. Learning performance during training evidenced a short-lived advantage for arousing-negative associated words, which was not present at the end of training. Cued recall and valence ratings revealed a memory bias for pseudowords that had been paired with arousing-negative pictures, immediately after learning and two weeks later. This held even for items that were not explicitly remembered. High anxious individuals evidenced a stronger memory bias in the cued-recall test, and their ratings were also more negative overall compared to low anxious persons. Both effects were evident, even when explicit recall was controlled for. Regarding the memory bias in anxiety prone persons, explicit memory seems to play a more crucial role than implicit memory. The study stresses the need for several time points of bias measurement during the course of learning and retrieval, as well as the employment of different measures for learning success.

  12. Forward-biased nanophotonic detector for ultralow-energy dissipation receiver

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nozaki, Kengo; Matsuo, Shinji; Fujii, Takuro; Takeda, Koji; Shinya, Akihiko; Kuramochi, Eiichi; Notomi, Masaya

    2018-04-01

    Generally, reverse-biased photodetectors (PDs) are used for high-speed optical receivers. The forward voltage region is only utilized in solar-cells, and this photovoltaic operation would not be concurrently obtained with high efficiency and high speed operation. Here we report that photonic-crystal waveguide PDs enable forward-biased high-speed operation at 40 Gbit/s with keeping high responsivity (0.88 A/W). Within our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the forward-biased PDs with high responsivity. This achievement is attributed to the ultracompactness of our PD and the strong light confinement within the absorber and depleted regions, thereby enabling efficient photo-carrier generation and fast extraction. This result indicates that it is possible to construct a high-speed and ultracompact photo-receiver without an electrical amplifier nor an external bias circuit. Since there is no electrical energy required, our estimation shows that the consumption energy is just the optical energy of the injected signal pulse which is about 1 fJ/bit. Hence, it will lead to an ultimately efficient and highly integrable optical-to-electrical converter in a chip, which will be a key ingredient for dense nanophotonic communication and processors.

  13. Forward-biased nanophotonic detector for ultralow-energy dissipation receiver

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kengo Nozaki

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Generally, reverse-biased photodetectors (PDs are used for high-speed optical receivers. The forward voltage region is only utilized in solar-cells, and this photovoltaic operation would not be concurrently obtained with high efficiency and high speed operation. Here we report that photonic-crystal waveguide PDs enable forward-biased high-speed operation at 40 Gbit/s with keeping high responsivity (0.88 A/W. Within our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the forward-biased PDs with high responsivity. This achievement is attributed to the ultracompactness of our PD and the strong light confinement within the absorber and depleted regions, thereby enabling efficient photo-carrier generation and fast extraction. This result indicates that it is possible to construct a high-speed and ultracompact photo-receiver without an electrical amplifier nor an external bias circuit. Since there is no electrical energy required, our estimation shows that the consumption energy is just the optical energy of the injected signal pulse which is about 1 fJ/bit. Hence, it will lead to an ultimately efficient and highly integrable optical-to-electrical converter in a chip, which will be a key ingredient for dense nanophotonic communication and processors.

  14. Directional Bias and Pheromone for Discovery and Coverage on Networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fink, Glenn A.; Berenhaut, Kenneth S.; Oehmen, Christopher S.

    2012-09-11

    Natural multi-agent systems often rely on “correlated random walks” (random walks that are biased toward a current heading) to distribute their agents over a space (e.g., for foraging, search, etc.). Our contribution involves creation of a new movement and pheromone model that applies the concept of heading bias in random walks to a multi-agent, digital-ants system designed for cyber-security monitoring. We examine the relative performance effects of both pheromone and heading bias on speed of discovery of a target and search-area coverage in a two-dimensional network layout. We found that heading bias was unexpectedly helpful in reducing search time and that it was more influential than pheromone for improving coverage. We conclude that while pheromone is very important for rapid discovery, heading bias can also greatly improve both performance metrics.

  15. Influence of substrate dc bias on crystallinity of silicon films grown at a high rate from inductively-coupled plasma CVD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosku, N.; Murakami, H.; Higashi, S.; Miyazaki, S.

    2005-01-01

    We have investigated the effect of substrate bias on the microcrystalline film growth from inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) of H 2 -diluted SiH 4 at 250 deg. C to get an insight on the role of ion and electron incidence for the crystallization. By applying dc bias voltage to the substrate in the range of -20 ∼ 20 V during the film growth, the crystallinity is improved significantly with no significant change in the deposition rate, but in contrast the application of biases as high as ±50 V degrades the crystallinity. These results indicate that the incidence of ions or electrons with a moderate energy to the growing film surface promotes the nucleation and the growth of crystallites. Also, the optimum bias condition for the crystallization is changed with the antenna-substrate distance, which suggests the contribution of hydrogen radical flux to the crystalline film growth

  16. High current polarized electron source

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suleiman, R.; Adderley, P.; Grames, J.; Hansknecht, J.; Poelker, M.; Stutzman, M.

    2018-05-01

    Jefferson Lab operates two DC high voltage GaAs photoguns with compact inverted insulators. One photogun provides the polarized electron beam at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) up to 200 µA. The other gun is used for high average current photocathode lifetime studies at a dedicated test facility up to 4 mA of polarized beam and 10 mA of un-polarized beam. GaAs-based photoguns used at accelerators with extensive user programs must exhibit long photocathode operating lifetime. Achieving this goal represents a significant challenge for proposed facilities that must operate in excess of tens of mA of polarized average current. This contribution describes techniques to maintain good vacuum while delivering high beam currents, and techniques that minimize damage due to ion bombardment, the dominant mechanism that reduces photocathode yield. Advantages of higher DC voltage include reduced space-charge emittance growth and the potential for better photocathode lifetime. Highlights of R&D to improve the performance of polarized electron sources and prolong the lifetime of strained-superlattice GaAs are presented.

  17. Multilayer DLC coatings via alternating bias during magnetron sputtering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li Fengji [School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore); Zhang, Sam, E-mail: msyzhang@ntu.edu.sg [School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore); Kong Junhua [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore); Zhang Yujuan [Key Laboratory of Special Functional Material, Henan University (China); Zhang Wali [School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

    2011-05-31

    To combat the high residual stress problem in monolayer diamond-like carbon coatings, this paper fabricated multilayer diamond-like carbon coatings with alternate soft and hard layers via alternating bias during magnetron sputtering. The surface, cross sectional morphology, bonding structures and mechanical properties are investigated. The atomic force microscopy images indicate low bias results in rougher surface with large graphite clusters and voids suggesting low coating density. The multilayered coatings demonstrate relatively smooth surface stemming from higher bias. The cross sectional images from field emission scanning electron microscopy indicate coating thickness decreases as substrate bias increases and confirm that higher bias results in denser coating. Delamination is observed in monolayer coatings due to high residual stress. The trend of sp{sup 3}/sp{sup 2} fraction estimated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is consistent with that of I{sub D}/I{sub G} ratios from Raman spectra, indicating the change of bonding structure with change of substrate bias. Hardness of multilayer diamond-like carbon coating is comparable to the coatings deposited at low constant bias but the adhesion strength and toughness are significantly improved. Alternately biased sputtering deposition provides an alternative when combination of hardness, toughness and adhesion strength is needed in an all diamond-like carbon coating.

  18. Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias

    OpenAIRE

    Russo, Riccardo; Whittuck, Dora; Roberson, Debi; Dutton, Kevin; Georgiou, George; Fox, Elaine

    2006-01-01

    The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modif...

  19. Significant biases affecting abundance determinations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wesson, Roger

    2015-08-01

    I have developed two highly efficient codes to automate analyses of emission line nebulae. The tools place particular emphasis on the propagation of uncertainties. The first tool, ALFA, uses a genetic algorithm to rapidly optimise the parameters of gaussian fits to line profiles. It can fit emission line spectra of arbitrary resolution, wavelength range and depth, with no user input at all. It is well suited to highly multiplexed spectroscopy such as that now being carried out with instruments such as MUSE at the VLT. The second tool, NEAT, carries out a full analysis of emission line fluxes, robustly propagating uncertainties using a Monte Carlo technique.Using these tools, I have found that considerable biases can be introduced into abundance determinations if the uncertainty distribution of emission lines is not well characterised. For weak lines, normally distributed uncertainties are generally assumed, though it is incorrect to do so, and significant biases can result. I discuss observational evidence of these biases. The two new codes contain routines to correctly characterise the probability distributions, giving more reliable results in analyses of emission line nebulae.

  20. High Precision Clock Bias Prediction Model in Clock Synchronization System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zan Liu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Time synchronization is a fundamental requirement for many services provided by a distributed system. Clock calibration through the time signal is the usual way to realize the synchronization among the clocks used in the distributed system. The interference to time signal transmission or equipment failures may bring about failure to synchronize the time. To solve this problem, a clock bias prediction module is paralleled in the clock calibration system. And for improving the precision of clock bias prediction, the first-order grey model with one variable (GM(1,1 model is proposed. In the traditional GM(1,1 model, the combination of parameters determined by least squares criterion is not optimal; therefore, the particle swarm optimization (PSO is used to optimize GM(1,1 model. At the same time, in order to avoid PSO getting stuck at local optimization and improve its efficiency, the mechanisms that double subgroups and nonlinear decreasing inertia weight are proposed. In order to test the precision of the improved model, we design clock calibration experiments, where time signal is transferred via radio and wired channel, respectively. The improved model is built on the basis of clock bias acquired in the experiments. The results show that the improved model is superior to other models both in precision and in stability. The precision of improved model increased by 66.4%~76.7%.

  1. Experiment of bias probe method at NIRS-18 GHz ECR ion source

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jincho, Kaoru; Yamamoto, Mitsugu; Okada, Takanori; Takasugi, Wataru; Sakuma, Tetsuya; Miyoshi, Tomohiro [Accelerator Engineering Corp., Chiba (Japan); Kitagawa, Atsushi; Muramatsu, Masayuki [National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan); Biri, Sandor [Institute of Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), Debrecen (Hungary)

    2000-11-01

    An 18 GHz ECR ion source (NIRS-HEC) has been developed to produce highly charged heavy ions from Ar to Xe. In order to increase the beam intensity of highly charged ion, we tried a technique of supplying cold electrons into the ECR plasma. In this paper, enhancement of the beam intensity is discussed in detail. The bias voltage is applied on the probe to repel cold electrons which flow from a plasma. The output beam current is 130 e{mu}A for Ar{sup 11+}. (J.P.N.)

  2. Experiment of bias probe method at NIRS-18 GHz ECR ion source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jincho, Kaoru; Yamamoto, Mitsugu; Okada, Takanori; Takasugi, Wataru; Sakuma, Tetsuya; Miyoshi, Tomohiro; Kitagawa, Atsushi; Muramatsu, Masayuki; Biri, Sandor

    2000-01-01

    An 18 GHz ECR ion source (NIRS-HEC) has been developed to produce highly charged heavy ions from Ar to Xe. In order to increase the beam intensity of highly charged ion, we tried a technique of supplying cold electrons into the ECR plasma. In this paper, enhancement of the beam intensity is discussed in detail. The bias voltage is applied on the probe to repel cold electrons which flow from a plasma. The output beam current is 130 eμA for Ar 11+ . (J.P.N.)

  3. The role of experience on techno-entrepreneurs’ decision making biases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pouria Nouri

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Entrepreneurs are the driving force behind the prospect and growth of the societies. Sound and wise decisions pave the way for them to carry out these highly important functions. Entrepreneurs are to discover and exploit opportunities. Therefore, they must gather sufficient and pertinent information. Entrepreneurs, like most human beings face complex and ambiguous decision-making situations, not to mention their lack of time and source to gather and process the data. Under these circumstances, entrepreneurs are prone making biases decisions. There are many reasons identified for this entrepreneurial decision making biases, such as the high cost of rational decision making, limitations in information processing, differences in their styles and procedures, or information overload, environmental complexity, environmental uncertainty. These biases are neither totally harmful nor completely useful and have to be seen as natural human characteristics. What makes entrepreneurial decision-making biases important is their effects on the decisions and thus the outcome of the enterprises. Entrepreneurial decision-making biases, deliberate or unintentional can seal the fate of the enterprises, therefore studying them meticulously is crucial. Literature has shown that experience could be an effective factor in decision-making biases. In this paper, we try to find out the impact of experience in Iranian high tech entrepreneurs’ major decision-making biases by a qualitative approach. Finally, it was concluded that experience is influential in shaping overconfidence bias.

  4. Spin-current diode with a ferromagnetic semiconductor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun, Qing-Feng; Xie, X. C.

    2015-01-01

    Diode is a key device in electronics: the charge current can flow through the device under a forward bias, while almost no current flows under a reverse bias. Here, we propose a corresponding device in spintronics: the spin-current diode, in which the forward spin current is large but the reversed one is negligible. We show that the lead/ferromagnetic quantum dot/lead system and the lead/ferromagnetic semiconductor/lead junction can work as spin-current diodes. The spin-current diode, a low dissipation device, may have important applications in spintronics, as the conventional charge-current diode does in electronics

  5. Internet-based cognitive bias modification for obsessive compulsive disorder : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Williams, Alishia D; Pajak, Rosanna; O'Moore, Kathleen; Andrews, Gavin; Grisham, Jessica R

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Cognitive bias modification (CBM) interventions have demonstrated efficacy in augmenting core biases implicated in psychopathology. The current randomized controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the efficacy of an internet-delivered positive imagery cognitive bias modification intervention

  6. High Voltage GaN Schottky Rectifiers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    CAO,X.A.; CHO,H.; CHU,S.N.G.; CHUO,C.-C.; CHYI,J.-I.; DANG,G.T.; HAN,JUNG; LEE,C.-M.; PEARTON,S.J.; REN,F.; WILSON,R.G.; ZHANG,A.P.

    1999-10-25

    Mesa and planar GaN Schottky diode rectifiers with reverse breakdown voltages (V{sub RB}) up to 550V and >2000V, respectively, have been fabricated. The on-state resistance, R{sub ON}, was 6m{Omega}{center_dot} cm{sup 2} and 0.8{Omega}cm{sup 2}, respectively, producing figure-of-merit values for (V{sub RB}){sup 2}/R{sub ON} in the range 5-48 MW{center_dot}cm{sup -2}. At low biases the reverse leakage current was proportional to the size of the rectifying contact perimeter, while at high biases the current was proportional to the area of this contact. These results suggest that at low reverse biases, the leakage is dominated by the surface component, while at higher biases the bulk component dominates. On-state voltages were 3.5V for the 550V diodes and {ge}15 for the 2kV diodes. Reverse recovery times were <0.2{micro}sec for devices switched from a forward current density of {approx}500A{center_dot}cm{sup -2} to a reverse bias of 100V.

  7. Cognitive biases can affect moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucius eCaviola

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Research into cognitive biases that impair human judgment has mostly been applied to the area of economic decision-making. Ethical decision-making has been comparatively neglected. Since ethical decisions often involve very high individual as well as collective stakes, analyzing how cognitive biases affect them can be expected to yield important results. In this theoretical article, we consider the ethical debate about cognitive enhancement (CE and suggest a number of cognitive biases that are likely to affect moral intuitions and judgments about CE: status quo bias, loss aversion, risk aversion, omission bias, scope insensitivity, nature bias, and optimistic bias. We find that there are more well-documented biases that are likely to cause irrational aversion to CE than biases in the opposite direction. This suggests that common attitudes about CE are predominantly negatively biased. Within this new perspective, we hope that subsequent research will be able to elaborate this hypothesis and develop effective de-biasing techniques that can help increase the rationality of the public CE debate and thus improve our ethical decision-making.

  8. Immediacy Bias in Emotion Perception: Current Emotions Seem More Intense than Previous Emotions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Boven, Leaf; White, Katherine; Huber, Michaela

    2009-01-01

    People tend to perceive immediate emotions as more intense than previous emotions. This "immediacy bias" in emotion perception occurred for exposure to emotional but not neutral stimuli (Study 1), when emotional stimuli were separated by both shorter (2 s; Studies 1 and 2) and longer (20 min; Studies 3, 4, and 5) delays, and for emotional…

  9. Does Specialty Bias Trump Evidence in the Management of High-risk Prostate Cancer?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kishan, Amar U; Duchesne, Gillian; Wang, Pin-Chieh; Rwigema, Jean-Claude M; Saigal, Christopher; Rettig, Matthew; Steinberg, Michael L; King, Christopher R

    2018-06-01

    The objective was to query how specialty influences treatment recommendations for high-risk prostate cancer in 3 clinical settings: upfront management, postoperative management, and management of biochemical recurrences (BCRs) after radiotherapy (RT). We hypothesized that specialty bias would manifest in all settings, trumping available evidence. A survey of practicing urologists and radiation oncologists was distributed through electronic mail. Questions pertained to upfront management, postoperative treatment, and local salvage for postradiation BCRs. The associations between 26 selected categorical responses and specialty were assessed using multivariate logistic regression. Training level/expertise, practice setting, percentage of consultation caseload consisting of prostate cancer, and nationality were set as effect modifiers. One thousand two hundred fifty-three physicians (846 radiation oncologists and 407 urologists) completed the survey. Radiation oncologists were more likely to recommend adjuvant RT and consider it to be underutilized, and more likely to recommend salvage RT at lower prostate-specific antigen thresholds (P<0.0001). Urologists were more likely to recommend salvage radical prostatectomy or cryoablation for local salvage after RT, whereas radiation oncologists were more likely to recommend RT-based modalities and more likely to report that local salvage was underutilized after RT (P<0.0001). Urologists were more likely to report that upfront radical prostatectomy was a better definitive treatment (P<0.0001), whereas radiation oncologists were more likely to report the opposite (P=0.005). Specialty biases permeate recommendations for upfront management and management in the postoperative and post-RT BCR setting, irrespective of available evidence. These data reveal the critical need for multidisciplinary clinics and cross-specialty training as potential solutions for overcoming specialty bias.

  10. Ternary NiFeX as soft biasing film in a magnetoresistive sensor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Mao-Min; Gharsallah, Neila; Gorman, Grace L.; Latimer, Jacquie

    1991-04-01

    The properties of NiFeX ternary films (X being Al, Au, Nb, Pd, Pt, Si, and Zr) have been studied for soft-film biasing of the magnetoresistive (MR) trilayer sensor. In general, the addition of the element X into the NiFe alloy film decreases the saturation magnetization Bs and magnetoresistance coefficient of the film, while increasing the film's electrical resistivity ρ. One of the desirable properties of a soft film for biasing is high sheet resistance for minimum current flow. A figure of merit Bsρ that takes into account both the rate of increase in Bs and the rate of decrease in ρ when adding X element was derived to compare the effectiveness of various X elements in reducing the current shunting through the soft-film layer. Using this criterion, NiFeNb and NiFeZr emerge as good soft-film materials having a maximum sheet resistance relative to the MR layer. Other critical properties such as magnetoresistance coefficient, magnetostriction, coercivity, and anisotropy field were also examined and are discussed in this paper.

  11. Measurements of the asymmetric dynamic sheath around a pulse biased sphere immersed in flowing metal plasma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Hongchen; Anders, André

    2008-08-01

    A long-probe technique was utilized to record the expansion and retreat of the dynamic sheath around a spherical substrate immersed in pulsed cathode arc metal plasma. Positively biased, long cylindrical probes were placed on the side and downstream of a negatively pulsed biased stainless steel sphere of 1 in. (25.4 mm) diameter. The amplitude and width of the negative high voltage pulses (HVPs) were 2 kV, 5 kV, 10 kV, and 2 µs, 4 µs, 10 µs, respectively. The variation of the probe (electron) current during the HVP is a direct measure for the sheath expansion and retreat. Maximum sheath sizes were determined for the different parameters of the HVP. The expected rarefaction zone behind the biased sphere (wake) due to the fast plasma flow was clearly established and quantified.

  12. Mutational Biases and GC-Biased Gene Conversion Affect GC Content in the Plastomes of Dendrobium Genus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhitao Niu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The variation of GC content is a key genome feature because it is associated with fundamental elements of genome organization. However, the reason for this variation is still an open question. Different kinds of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the variation of GC content during genome evolution. However, these hypotheses have not been explicitly investigated in whole plastome sequences. Dendrobium is one of the largest genera in the orchid species. Evolutionary studies of the plastomic organization and base composition are limited in this genus. In this study, we obtained the high-quality plastome sequences of D. loddigesii and D. devonianum. The comparison results showed a nearly identical organization in Dendrobium plastomes, indicating that the plastomic organization is highly conserved in Dendrobium genus. Furthermore, the impact of three evolutionary forces—selection, mutational biases, and GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC—on the variation of GC content in Dendrobium plastomes was evaluated. Our results revealed: (1 consistent GC content evolution trends and mutational biases in single-copy (SC and inverted repeats (IRs regions; and (2 that gBGC has influenced the plastome-wide GC content evolution. These results suggest that both mutational biases and gBGC affect GC content in the plastomes of Dendrobium genus.

  13. Mutational Biases and GC-Biased Gene Conversion Affect GC Content in the Plastomes of Dendrobium Genus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Zhitao; Xue, Qingyun; Wang, Hui; Xie, Xuezhu; Zhu, Shuying; Liu, Wei; Ding, Xiaoyu

    2017-01-01

    The variation of GC content is a key genome feature because it is associated with fundamental elements of genome organization. However, the reason for this variation is still an open question. Different kinds of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the variation of GC content during genome evolution. However, these hypotheses have not been explicitly investigated in whole plastome sequences. Dendrobium is one of the largest genera in the orchid species. Evolutionary studies of the plastomic organization and base composition are limited in this genus. In this study, we obtained the high-quality plastome sequences of D. loddigesii and D. devonianum. The comparison results showed a nearly identical organization in Dendrobium plastomes, indicating that the plastomic organization is highly conserved in Dendrobium genus. Furthermore, the impact of three evolutionary forces—selection, mutational biases, and GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC)—on the variation of GC content in Dendrobium plastomes was evaluated. Our results revealed: (1) consistent GC content evolution trends and mutational biases in single-copy (SC) and inverted repeats (IRs) regions; and (2) that gBGC has influenced the plastome-wide GC content evolution. These results suggest that both mutational biases and gBGC affect GC content in the plastomes of Dendrobium genus. PMID:29099062

  14. Correction of sampling bias in a cross-sectional study of post-surgical complications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fluss, Ronen; Mandel, Micha; Freedman, Laurence S; Weiss, Inbal Salz; Zohar, Anat Ekka; Haklai, Ziona; Gordon, Ethel-Sherry; Simchen, Elisheva

    2013-06-30

    Cross-sectional designs are often used to monitor the proportion of infections and other post-surgical complications acquired in hospitals. However, conventional methods for estimating incidence proportions when applied to cross-sectional data may provide estimators that are highly biased, as cross-sectional designs tend to include a high proportion of patients with prolonged hospitalization. One common solution is to use sampling weights in the analysis, which adjust for the sampling bias inherent in a cross-sectional design. The current paper describes in detail a method to build weights for a national survey of post-surgical complications conducted in Israel. We use the weights to estimate the probability of surgical site infections following colon resection, and validate the results of the weighted analysis by comparing them with those obtained from a parallel study with a historically prospective design. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. Complementary Self-Biased Logics Based on Single-Electron Transistor (SET)/CMOS Hybrid Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Ki-Whan; Lee, Yong Kyu; Sim, Jae Sung; Kim, Kyung Rok; Lee, Jong Duk; Park, Byung-Gook; You, Young Sub; Park, Joo-On; Jin, You Seung; Kim, Young-Wug

    2005-04-01

    We propose a complementary self-biasing method which enables the single-electron transistor (SET)/complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) hybrid multi-valued logics (MVLs) to operate well at high temperatures, where the peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR) of the Coulomb oscillation markedly decreases. The new architecture is implemented with a few transistors by utilizing the phase control capability of the sidewall depletion gates in dual-gate single-electron transistors (DGSETs). The suggested scheme is evaluated by a SPICE simulation with an analytical DGSET model. Furthermore, we have developed a new process technology for the SET/CMOS hybrid systems. We have confirmed that both of the fabricated devices, namely, SET and CMOS transistors, exhibit the ideal characteristics for the complementary self-biasing scheme: the SET shows clear Coulomb oscillations with a 100 mV period and the CMOS transistors show a high voltage gain.

  16. Persistent User Bias in Case-Crossover Studies in Pharmacoepidemiology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hallas, Jesper; Pottegård, Anton; Wang, Shirley

    2016-01-01

    Studying the effect of chronic medication exposure by means of a case-crossover design may result in an upward-biased odds ratio. In this study, our aim was to assess the occurrence of this bias and to evaluate whether it is remedied by including a control group (the case-time-control design...... for the retinal detachment controls were similar, leading to near-null case-time-control estimates for all 3 medication classes. For wrist fracture and stroke, the odds ratios were higher for cases than for controls, and case-time-control odds ratios were consistently above unity, thus implying significant...... residual bias. In case-crossover studies of medications, contamination by persistent users confers a moderate bias upward, which is partly remedied by using a control group. The optimal strategy for dealing with this problem is currently unknown....

  17. Toward a clarification of the taxonomy of "bias" in epidemiology textbooks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Sharon; Campbell, Ulka B; Gatto, Nicolle M; Gordon, Kirsha

    2015-03-01

    Epidemiology textbooks typically divide biases into 3 general categories-confounding, selection bias, and information bias. Despite the ubiquity of this categorization, authors often use these terms to mean different things. This hinders communication among epidemiologists and confuses students who are just learning about the field. To understand the sources of this problem, we reviewed current general epidemiology textbooks to examine how the authors defined and categorized biases. We found that much of the confusion arises from different definitions of "validity" and from a mixing of 3 overlapping organizational features in defining and differentiating among confounding, selection bias, and information bias: consequence, the result of the problem; cause, the processes that give rise to the problem; and cure, how these biases can be addressed once they occur. By contrast, a consistent taxonomy would provide (1) a clear and consistent definition of what unites confounding, selection bias, and information bias and (2) a clear articulation and consistent application of the feature that distinguishes these categories. Based on a distillation of these textbook discussions, we provide an example of a taxonomy that we think meets these criteria.

  18. Quality of reporting and risk of bias in therapeutic otolaryngology publications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaper, N M; Swart, K M A; Grolman, W; Van Der Heijden, G J M G

    2018-01-01

    High-quality trials have the potential to influence clinical practice. Ten otolaryngology journals with the highest 2011 impact factors were selected and publications from 2010 were extracted. From all medical journals, the 20 highest impact factor journals were selected, and publications related to otolaryngology for 2010 and 2011 were extracted. For all publications, the reporting quality and risk of bias were assessed. The impact factor was 1.8-2.8 for otolaryngology journals and 6.0-101.8 for medical journals. Of 1500 otolaryngology journal articles, 262 were therapeutic studies; 94 had a high reporting quality and 5 a low risk of bias. Of 10 967 medical journal articles, 76 were therapeutic studies; 57 had a high reporting quality and 8 a low risk of bias. Reporting quality was high for 45 per cent of otolaryngology-related publications and 9 per cent met quality standards. General journals had higher impact factors than otolaryngology journals. Reporting quality was higher and risk of bias lower in general journals than in otolaryngology journals. Nevertheless, 76 per cent of articles in high impact factor journals carried a high risk of bias. Better reported and designed studies are the goal, with less risk of bias, especially in otolaryngology journals.

  19. Naming game with biased assimilation over adaptive networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Guiyuan; Zhang, Weidong

    2018-01-01

    The dynamics of two-word naming game incorporating the influence of biased assimilation over adaptive network is investigated in this paper. Firstly an extended naming game with biased assimilation (NGBA) is proposed. The hearer in NGBA accepts the received information in a biased manner, where he may refuse to accept the conveyed word from the speaker with a predefined probability, if the conveyed word is different from his current memory. Secondly, the adaptive network is formulated by rewiring the links. Theoretical analysis is developed to show that the population in NGBA will eventually reach global consensus on either A or B. Numerical simulation results show that the larger strength of biased assimilation on both words, the slower convergence speed, while larger strength of biased assimilation on only one word can slightly accelerate the convergence; larger population size can make the rate of convergence slower to a large extent when it increases from a relatively small size, while such effect becomes minor when the population size is large; the behavior of adaptively reconnecting the existing links can greatly accelerate the rate of convergence especially on the sparse connected network.

  20. Divertor ‘death-ray’ explained: An artifact of a Langmuir probe operating at negative bias in a high-recycling divertor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brunner, D.; Umansky, M.V.; LaBombard, B.; Rognlien, T.D.

    2013-01-01

    The divertor ‘death-ray’, enhanced plasma pressure near the outer strike-point relative to ‘upstream’ values, was thought to correspond to axisymmetric increased divertor heat flux. Recent measurements on Alcator C-Mod show that the ‘death-ray’ is localized to biased Langmuir probes. Heat fluxes deduced from plasma-sheath theory and surface thermocouples agree in sheath-limited and moderate-recycling regimes. They diverge in high-recycling and detached regimes; surface thermocouples measure reduced heat flux while a ‘death-ray’ appears on Langmuir probes. The ‘death-ray’ is caused by the probe’s negative bias affecting the local flux tube. With the bias, electron heat flux to the probe surface is reduced. Thus, the local electron temperature is raised, enhancing neutral ionization and increasing the ion flux to the probe. The plasma fluid code UEDGE is used to simulate and reproduce many of the features of this integrated biased probe/divertor system

  1. MARRT: Medial Axis biased rapidly-exploring random trees

    KAUST Repository

    Denny, Jory

    2014-05-01

    © 2014 IEEE. Motion planning is a difficult and widely studied problem in robotics. Current research aims not only to find feasible paths, but to ensure paths have certain properties, e.g., shortest or safest paths. This is difficult for current state-of-the-art sampling-based techniques as they typically focus on simply finding any path. Despite this difficulty, sampling-based techniques have shown great success in planning for a wide range of applications. Among such planners, Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees (RRTs) search the planning space by biasing exploration toward unexplored regions. This paper introduces a novel RRT variant, Medial Axis RRT (MARRT), which biases tree exploration to the medial axis of free space by pushing all configurations from expansion steps towards the medial axis. We prove that this biasing increases the tree\\'s clearance from obstacles. Improving obstacle clearance is useful where path safety is important, e.g., path planning for robots performing tasks in close proximity to the elderly. Finally, we experimentally analyze MARRT, emphasizing its ability to effectively map difficult passages while increasing obstacle clearance, and compare it to contemporary RRT techniques.

  2. Eddy current magnetic bias x-probe qualification and inspection of steam generator Monel 400 tubing in Pickering Nuclear Generating Station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lepine, B.A.; Van Langen, J.; Obrutsky, L.

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents an overview of the x-probe MB 350 eddy current inspection array probe, for detection of open OD axial crack-like flaws in Monel 400 tubes at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. This report contains a selection of inspection results from the field inspections performed with this probe during the 2003 and 2004 period at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station A and B. During the 2003 in-service eddy current inspection results of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station A (PNGS-A) Unit 2, a 13 mm (0.5 inch) long axial indication was detected by the CTR1 bobbin and CTR2-C4 array probes in Tube R25-C52 of Steam Generator (SG) 11 in the hot leg sludge pile region. An experimental magnetic bias X-probe, specially designed by Zetec for inspection of Monel 400 tubing, was deployed and the indication was characterized as a potential out diameter (OD) axially oriented crack. Post-inspection tube pulling and destructive examination confirmed the presence of an Environmentally Assisted Crack (EAC), approximately 80% deep and 13mm long. Due to the significance of this discovery, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) requested AECL to initiate a program for qualification of the X-probe MB 350 for the detection of OD axial cracks in medium to high magnetic permeability μ r Monel 400 PNGS-A and B steam generator tubing at different locations. The X-probe MB 350 subsequently has been deployed as a primary inspection probe for crack detection for PNGS steam generators. (author)

  3. Perceptual and cognitive biases in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clerkin, Elise M; Teachman, Bethany A

    2008-01-01

    Given the extreme focus on perceived physical defects in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), we expected that perceptual and cognitive biases related to physical appearance would be associated with BDD symptomology. To examine these hypotheses, participants ( N = 70) high and low in BDD symptoms completed tasks assessing visual perception and cognition. As expected, there were significant group differences in self-, but not other-, relevant cognitive biases. Perceptual bias results were mixed, with some evidence indicating that individuals high (versus low) in BDD symptoms literally see themselves in a less positive light. Further, individuals high in BDD symptoms failed to demonstrate a normative self-enhancement bias. Overall, this research points to the importance of assessing both cognitive and perceptual biases associated with BDD symptoms, and suggests that visual perception may be influenced by non-visual factors.

  4. Hotspot relaxation dynamics in a current-carrying superconductor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsili, F.; Stevens, M. J.; Kozorezov, A.; Verma, V. B.; Lambert, Colin; Stern, J. A.; Horansky, R. D.; Dyer, S.; Duff, S.; Pappas, D. P.; Lita, A. E.; Shaw, M. D.; Mirin, R. P.; Nam, S. W.

    2016-03-01

    We experimentally studied the dynamics of optically excited hotspots in current-carrying WSi superconducting nanowires as a function of bias current, bath temperature, and excitation wavelength. We observed that the hotspot relaxation time depends on bias current, temperature, and wavelength. We explained this effect with a model based on quasiparticle recombination, which provides insight into the quasiparticle dynamics of superconductors.

  5. Systematic biases in human heading estimation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luigi F Cuturi

    Full Text Available Heading estimation is vital to everyday navigation and locomotion. Despite extensive behavioral and physiological research on both visual and vestibular heading estimation over more than two decades, the accuracy of heading estimation has not yet been systematically evaluated. Therefore human visual and vestibular heading estimation was assessed in the horizontal plane using a motion platform and stereo visual display. Heading angle was overestimated during forward movements and underestimated during backward movements in response to both visual and vestibular stimuli, indicating an overall multimodal bias toward lateral directions. Lateral biases are consistent with the overrepresentation of lateral preferred directions observed in neural populations that carry visual and vestibular heading information, including MSTd and otolith afferent populations. Due to this overrepresentation, population vector decoding yields patterns of bias remarkably similar to those observed behaviorally. Lateral biases are inconsistent with standard bayesian accounts which predict that estimates should be biased toward the most common straight forward heading direction. Nevertheless, lateral biases may be functionally relevant. They effectively constitute a perceptual scale expansion around straight ahead which could allow for more precise estimation and provide a high gain feedback signal to facilitate maintenance of straight-forward heading during everyday navigation and locomotion.

  6. A pupillary index of susceptibility to decision biases

    OpenAIRE

    Eldar, Eran; Felso, Valkyrie; Cohen, Jonathan; Niv, Yael

    2018-01-01

    Under what conditions do humans systematically deviate from rational decision making? Here we show that pupillary indices of low neural gain are associated with strong and consistent biases across six different extensively-studied decision making tasks, whereas indices of high gain are associated with weak or absent biases. Lower susceptibility to biases, however, comes at the cost of indecisiveness, or alternatively, prolonged deliberation time. We explain the association between low gain an...

  7. Current-voltage characteristics of carbon nanotubes with substitutional nitrogen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaun, C.C.; Larade, B.; Mehrez, H.

    2002-01-01

    unit cell generates a metallic transport behavior. Nonlinear I-V characteristics set in at high bias and a negative differential resistance region is observed for the doped tubes. These behaviors can be well understood from the alignment/mis-alignment of the current carrying bands in the nanotube leads......We report ab initio analysis of current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of carbon nanotubes with nitrogen substitution doping. For zigzag semiconducting tubes, doping with a single N impurity increases current flow and, for small radii tubes, narrows the current gap. Doping a N impurity per nanotube...

  8. A test to identify judgement bias in mice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boleij, H.; van't Klooster, J.; Lavrijsen, M.; Kirchhoff, S.; Arndt, S.S.; Ohl, F.

    2012-01-01

    Emotional states are known to affect cognitive processes. For example highly anxious individuals interpret ambiguous stimuli more negatively than low anxious people, an effect called negative judgement bias. Recently, the measurement of judgement bias has been used to try and indicate emotional

  9. Ion extraction from positively biased laser-ablation plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Isono, Fumika; Nakajima, Mitsuo; Hasegawa, Jun; Horioka, Kazuhiko

    2016-01-01

    Ions were extracted through a grounded grid from a positively biased laser-ablation plasma and the behaviors were investigated. Since the plasma was positively biased against the grounded wall, we could extract the ions without insulated gap. We confirmed formation of a virtual anode when we increased the distance between the grid and the ion collector. Results also indicated that when the ion flux from the ablation plasma exceeded a critical value, the current was strongly suppressed to the space charge limited level due to the formation of virtual anode.

  10. Attentional bias for craving-related (chocolate) food cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

    2009-12-01

    In this study, we investigated attentional biases for craving-related food cues. A pictorial dot probe task was used to assess selective attentional processing of one particular highly desired food, namely chocolate, relative to that of other highly desired foods. In Experiment 1, we examined biased processing of chocolate cues in habitual (trait) chocolate cravers, whereas in Experiment 2 we investigated the effect of experimentally induced (state) chocolate cravings on such processing. As predicted, habitual chocolate cravers (Experiment 1) and individuals in whom a craving for chocolate was temporarily induced (Experiment 2) showed speeded detection of probes replacing chocolate-related pictures, demonstrating an attentional bias for chocolate cues. Subsequent examination indicated that in both experiments the observed attentional biases stemmed from difficulty in disengaging attention from chocolate cues rather than from a shift of attention toward such cues. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications.

  11. Continual training of attentional bias in social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Songwei; Tan, Jieqing; Qian, Mingyi; Liu, Xinghua

    2008-08-01

    Using the dot-probe paradigm, it has been shown that high social anxiety is associated with an attentional bias toward negative information. In the present study, individuals with high social anxiety were divided into two groups randomly. One group was the attentional bias training group (Group T), and the other was the control group (Group C). For Group T, 7 days' continuous training of attentional bias was conducted using the dot-probe paradigm to make socially anxious individuals focus more on positive face pictures. The results showed that the training was effective in changing attentional bias in Group T. Scores of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in Group T were reduced compared to Group C, while the scores of Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and scores of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) showed no difference between the two groups, which suggested a limited reduction of social anxiety.

  12. A High-Power Low-Loss Continuously Tunable Bandpass Filter With Transversely Biased Ferrite-Loaded Coaxial Resonators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Acar, Öncel; Johansen, Tom Keinicke; Zhurbenko, Vitaliy

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a technology for high-power lowlosscontinuously tunable RF filters demonstrated by the exampleof a two-pole coupled-resonator filter. The resonators are shortenedcoaxial cavities loaded with ferrite inserts, where an externallyapplied transverse dc magnetic bias controls the c...... is observed to be 53.1 dBm at aninput fundamental tone level of 2 43 dBm....

  13. Determination of Shift/Bias in Digital Aerial Triangulation of UAV Imagery Sequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wierzbicki, Damian

    2017-12-01

    Currently UAV Photogrammetry is characterized a largely automated and efficient data processing. Depicting from the low altitude more often gains on the meaning in the uses of applications as: cities mapping, corridor mapping, road and pipeline inspections or mapping of large areas e.g. forests. Additionally, high-resolution video image (HD and bigger) is more often use for depicting from the low altitude from one side it lets deliver a lot of details and characteristics of ground surfaces features, and from the other side is presenting new challenges in the data processing. Therefore, determination of elements of external orientation plays a substantial role the detail of Digital Terrain Models and artefact-free ortophoto generation. Parallel a research on the quality of acquired images from UAV and above the quality of products e.g. orthophotos are conducted. Despite so fast development UAV photogrammetry still exists the necessity of accomplishment Automatic Aerial Triangulation (AAT) on the basis of the observations GPS/INS and via ground control points. During low altitude photogrammetric flight, the approximate elements of external orientation registered by UAV are burdened with the influence of some shift/bias errors. In this article, methods of determination shift/bias error are presented. In the process of the digital aerial triangulation two solutions are applied. In the first method shift/bias error was determined together with the drift/bias error, elements of external orientation and coordinates of ground control points. In the second method shift/bias error was determined together with the elements of external orientation, coordinates of ground control points and drift/bias error equals 0. When two methods were compared the difference for shift/bias error is more than ±0.01 m for all terrain coordinates XYZ.

  14. Nonresponse Bias and Superpopulation Models in Electoral Polls

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose M. Pavía

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Nonresponse bias (and, to a lesser extent, measurement error has become the main source of error for electoral forecasts in Spain. Although the post-stratifi cation techniques and ratio estimators currently used in the polling industry reduce deviations, they do not show enough capacity to mend the biases introduced when collecting data. This research reveals how a more effi cient use of the electoral information available outside the sample could help to signifi cantly improve the accuracy of predictions, and uses simulation techniques to show that this may be accompanied by less expensive sampling designs. The analysis, nevertheless, also concludes that the proposed specifi cation is not a panacea and affi rms that there is still scope for reducing nonresponse bias, pointing to several issues for future research.

  15. Can(not) take my eyes off it: attention bias for food in overweight participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Werthmann, Jessica; Roefs, Anne; Nederkoorn, Chantal; Mogg, Karin; Bradley, Brendan P; Jansen, Anita

    2011-09-01

    The aim of the current study was to investigate attention biases for food cues, craving, and overeating in overweight and healthy-weight participants. Specifically, it was tested whether attention allocation processes toward high-fat foods differ between overweight and normal weight individuals and whether selective attention biases for food cues are related to craving and food intake. Eye movements were recorded as a direct index of attention allocation in a sample of 22 overweight/obese and 29 healthy-weight female students during a visual probe task with food pictures. In addition, self-reported craving and actual food intake during a bogus "taste-test" were assessed. Overweight participants showed an approach-avoidance pattern of attention allocation toward high-fat food. Overweight participants directed their first gaze more often toward food pictures than healthy-weight individuals, but subsequently showed reduced maintenance of attention on these pictures. For overweight participants, craving was related to initial orientation toward food. Moreover, overweight participants consumed significantly more snack food than healthy-weight participants. Results emphasize the importance of identifying different attention bias components in overweight individuals with regard to craving and subsequent overeating.

  16. Children's 5-HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal criticism and attentional biases specifically for facial displays of anger.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibb, Brandon E; Johnson, Ashley L; Benas, Jessica S; Uhrlass, Dorothy J; Knopik, Valerie S; McGeary, John E

    2011-09-01

    Theorists have proposed that negative experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of experience-specific information-processing biases, including attentional biases. There are also clear genetic influences on cognitive processes, with evidence that polymorphisms in specific candidate genes may moderate the impact of environmental stress on attentional biases (e.g., a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene; 5-HTTLPR). In the current study, we tested a gene×environment (G×E) model of risk for attentional biases. We hypothesised that children whose mothers exhibit high levels of expressed emotion criticism (EE-Crit) would display attentional biases specifically for angry, but not happy or sad, faces, and that this link would be stronger among children carrying one or two copies of the 5-HTTLPR short allele than among those homozygous for the long allele. Results generally supported these hypotheses, though we found that carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele who also had a critical mother exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces rather than preferential attention.

  17. High current and high power superconducting rectifiers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kate, H.H.J. ten; Bunk, P.B.; Klundert, L.J.M. van de; Britton, R.B.

    1981-01-01

    Results on three experimental superconducting rectifiers are reported. Two of them are 1 kA low frequency flux pumps, one thermally and magnetically switched. The third is a low-current high-frequency magnetically switched rectifier which can use the mains directly. (author)

  18. Towards quantum signatures in a swept-bias Josephson junction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Losert, Harald; Vogel, Karl; Schleich, Wolfgang P. [Institut fuer Quantenphysik and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST), Universitaet Ulm, D-89069 Ulm (Germany)

    2016-07-01

    Josephson junctions are one of the best examples for the observation of macroscopic quantum tunneling. The phase difference in a current-biased Josephson junction behaves like the position of a particle in a tilted washboard potential. The escape of this phase-particle corresponds to the voltage switching of the associated junction. Quantum mechanically, the escape from the washboard potential can be explained as tunneling from the ground state, or an excited state. However, it has been shown, that in the case of periodic driving the experimental data for quantum mechanical key features, e.g. Rabi oscillations or energy level quantization, can be reproduced by a completely classical description. Motivated by this discussion, we investigate a swept-bias Josephson junction in the case of a large critical current. In particular, we contrast the switching current distributions resulting from a quantum mechanical and classical description of the time evolution.

  19. Dose-rate effects of low-dropout voltage regulator at various biases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Yiyuan; Zheng Yuzhan; Gao Bo; Chen Rui; Fei Wuxiong; Lu Wu; Ren Diyuan

    2010-01-01

    A low-dropout voltage regulator, LM2941, was irradiated by 60 Co γ-rays at various dose rates and biases for investigating the total dose and dose rate effects. The radiation responses show that the key electrical parameters, including its output and dropout voltage, and the maximum output current, are sensitive to total dose and dose rates, and are significantly degraded at low dose rate and zero bias. The integrated circuits damage change with the dose rates and biases, and the dose-rate effects are relative to its electric field. (authors)

  20. Effect of high substrate bias and hydrogen and nitrogen incorporation on filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposited tetrahedral amorphous carbon films

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panwar, O.S.; Khan, Mohd. Alim; Kumar, Mahesh; Shivaprasad, S.M.; Satyanarayana, B.S.; Dixit, P.N.; Bhattacharyya, R.; Khan, M.Y.

    2008-01-01

    The application of a sufficiently high negative substrate bias, during the growth of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), is usually associated with low sp 3 bonding configuration and stressed films. However, in an effort to understand and utilize the higher pseudo thermo dynamical conditions during the film growth, at high negative substrate bias (- 300 V), reported here is a study on ta-C films grown under different hydrogen and nitrogen concentration. As grown ta-C films were studied under different negative substrate bias conditions. The variation of the sp 3 content and sp 3 /sp 2 ratio in the ta-C films exhibits a trend similar to those reported in literature, with a subtle variation in this report being the substrate bias voltage, which was observed to be around - 200 V, for obtaining the highest sp 3 (80%) bonding and sp 3 /sp 2 (3.95) ratio. The hydrogen and nitrogen incorporated ta-C films studied, at a bias of - 300 V, show an increase in sp 3 (87-91%) bonding and sp 3 /sp 2 (7-10) ratio in the range of studies reported. The inference is drawn on the basis of the set of data obtained from measurements carried out using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray induced Auger electron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy of as grown and hydrogen and nitrogen incorporated ta-C films deposited using an S bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc system. The study indicates the possibility of further tailoring ta-C film properties and also extending capabilities of the cathodic arc system for developing carbon based films for electronics and tribological applications

  1. Effect of high substrate bias and hydrogen and nitrogen incorporation on filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposited tetrahedral amorphous carbon films

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Panwar, O.S. [Plasma Processed Materials Group, National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi-110 012 (India)], E-mail: ospanwar@mail.nplindia.ernet.in; Khan, Mohd. Alim [Plasma Processed Materials Group, National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi-110 012 (India); Kumar, Mahesh; Shivaprasad, S.M. [Surface Physics and Nanostructures Group, National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi-110 012 (India); Satyanarayana, B.S. [MIT Innovation Centre and Electronics and Communication Department, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal-579104 (India); Dixit, P.N. [Plasma Processed Materials Group, National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi-110 012 (India); Bhattacharyya, R. [Emeritus Scientist, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi-110012 (India); Khan, M.Y. [Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University, New Delhi-110025 (India)

    2008-02-29

    The application of a sufficiently high negative substrate bias, during the growth of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), is usually associated with low sp{sup 3} bonding configuration and stressed films. However, in an effort to understand and utilize the higher pseudo thermo dynamical conditions during the film growth, at high negative substrate bias (- 300 V), reported here is a study on ta-C films grown under different hydrogen and nitrogen concentration. As grown ta-C films were studied under different negative substrate bias conditions. The variation of the sp{sup 3} content and sp{sup 3}/sp{sup 2} ratio in the ta-C films exhibits a trend similar to those reported in literature, with a subtle variation in this report being the substrate bias voltage, which was observed to be around - 200 V, for obtaining the highest sp{sup 3} (80%) bonding and sp{sup 3}/sp{sup 2} (3.95) ratio. The hydrogen and nitrogen incorporated ta-C films studied, at a bias of - 300 V, show an increase in sp{sup 3} (87-91%) bonding and sp{sup 3}/sp{sup 2} (7-10) ratio in the range of studies reported. The inference is drawn on the basis of the set of data obtained from measurements carried out using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray induced Auger electron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy of as grown and hydrogen and nitrogen incorporated ta-C films deposited using an S bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc system. The study indicates the possibility of further tailoring ta-C film properties and also extending capabilities of the cathodic arc system for developing carbon based films for electronics and tribological applications.

  2. A Realization of Bias Correction Method in the GMAO Coupled System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Yehui; Koster, Randal; Wang, Hailan; Schubert, Siegfried; Suarez, Max

    2018-01-01

    Over the past several decades, a tremendous effort has been made to improve model performance in the simulation of the climate system. The cold or warm sea surface temperature (SST) bias in the tropics is still a problem common to most coupled ocean atmosphere general circulation models (CGCMs). The precipitation biases in CGCMs are also accompanied by SST and surface wind biases. The deficiencies and biases over the equatorial oceans through their influence on the Walker circulation likely contribute the precipitation biases over land surfaces. In this study, we introduce an approach in the CGCM modeling to correct model biases. This approach utilizes the history of the model's short-term forecasting errors and their seasonal dependence to modify model's tendency term and to minimize its climate drift. The study shows that such an approach removes most of model climate biases. A number of other aspects of the model simulation (e.g. extratropical transient activities) are also improved considerably due to the imposed pre-processed initial 3-hour model drift corrections. Because many regional biases in the GEOS-5 CGCM are common amongst other current models, our approaches and findings are applicable to these other models as well.

  3. Omens of coupled model biases in the CMIP5 AMIP simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Găinuşă-Bogdan, Alina; Hourdin, Frédéric; Traore, Abdoul Khadre; Braconnot, Pascale

    2018-02-01

    Despite decades of efforts and improvements in the representation of processes as well as in model resolution, current global climate models still suffer from a set of important, systematic biases in sea surface temperature (SST), not much different from the previous generation of climate models. Many studies have looked at errors in the wind field, cloud representation or oceanic upwelling in coupled models to explain the SST errors. In this paper we highlight the relationship between latent heat flux (LH) biases in forced atmospheric simulations and the SST biases models develop in coupled mode, at the scale of the entire intertropical domain. By analyzing 22 pairs of forced atmospheric and coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations from the CMIP5 database, we show a systematic, negative correlation between the spatial patterns of these two biases. This link between forced and coupled bias patterns is also confirmed by two sets of dedicated sensitivity experiments with the IPSL-CM5A-LR model. The analysis of the sources of the atmospheric LH bias pattern reveals that the near-surface wind speed bias dominates the zonal structure of the LH bias and that the near-surface relative humidity dominates the east-west contrasts.

  4. Cognitive bias in clinical practice – nurturing healthy skepticism among medical students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bhatti A

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Alysha Bhatti Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK Abstract: Errors in clinical reasoning, known as cognitive biases, are implicated in a significant proportion of diagnostic errors. Despite this knowledge, little emphasis is currently placed on teaching cognitive psychology in the undergraduate medical curriculum. Understanding the origin of these biases and their impact on clinical decision making helps stimulate reflective practice. This article outlines some of the common types of cognitive biases encountered in the clinical setting as well as cognitive debiasing strategies. Medical educators should nurture healthy skepticism among medical students by raising awareness of cognitive biases and equipping them with robust tools to circumvent such biases. This will enable tomorrow’s doctors to improve the quality of care delivered, thus optimizing patient outcomes. Keywords: cognitive bias, diagnostic error, clinical decision making

  5. Measurements of the asymmetric dynamic sheath around a pulse biased sphere immersed in flowing metal plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Hongchen; Anders, Andre

    2008-01-01

    A long-probe technique was utilized to record the expansion and retreat of the dynamic sheath around a spherical substrate immersed in pulsed cathode arc metal plasma. Positively biased, long cylindrical probes were placed on the side and downstream of a negatively pulsed biased stainless steel sphere of 1 in. (25.4 mm) diameter. The amplitude and width of the negative high voltage pulses (HVPs) were 2 kV, 5 kV, 10 kV, and 2 μs, 4 μs, 10 μs, respectively. The variation of the probe (electron) current during the HVP is a direct measure for the sheath expansion and retreat. Maximum sheath sizes were determined for the different parameters of the HVP. The expected rarefaction zone behind the biased sphere (wake) due to the fast plasma flow was clearly established and quantified.

  6. The Role of Biased Scanning in Counterattitudinal Advocacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, John D.; Collins, Barry E.

    1977-01-01

    Experiments tested biased-scanning hypothesis that high financial inducement leads to greater cognitive contact with counterattitudinal arguments and thus to greater attitude change. No differences in biased scanning or attitude change were observed as a function of financial inducement. Results were interpreted in framework of reactance and…

  7. A high-current, high-voltage power supply with special output current waveform for APS injector synchrotron dipole magnets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fathizadeh, M.; Despe, O.D.; McGhee, D.G.; Mills, F.E.; Turner, L.R.

    1991-01-01

    This paper describes a high-voltage, high-current power supply for the injector synchrotron dipole magnets at APS. In order to reset the dipole magnets in each cycle two different current waveforms are suggested. The first current waveform consists of three sections, namely: dc-reset, linear ramp, and recovery sections where injection is done ''on the fly''. The second current waveform consists of six different sections, dc-reset, transition to injection level, injection flat level, parabolic, linear ramp and recovery sections. The effect of such waveforms on the beam is discussed and the power supply limitations to follow such waveforms are given. The power supply limitations are due to the power components and control loops. The reference for the current loop is generated by a DAC which is discussed

  8. Measurement of Minimum Bias Observables with ATLAS

    CERN Document Server

    Kvita, Jiri; The ATLAS collaboration

    2017-01-01

    The modelling of Minimum Bias (MB) is a crucial ingredient to learn about the description of soft QCD processes. It has also a significant relevance for the simulation of the environment at the LHC with many concurrent pp interactions (“pileup”). The ATLAS collaboration has provided new measurements of the inclusive charged particle multiplicity and its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity in special data sets with low LHC beam currents, recorded at center of mass energies of 8 TeV and 13 TeV. The measurements cover a wide spectrum using charged particle selections with minimum transverse momentum of both 100 MeV and 500 MeV and in various phase space regions of low and high charged particle multiplicities.

  9. Attentional bias in snus users: an experimental study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rune Aune Mentzoni

    Full Text Available The use of nicotine in the form of "snus" is substantial and increasing in some geographic areas, in particular among young people. It has previously been suggested that addictions may operate through a mechanism of attentional bias, in which stimuli representative of the dependent substance increase in salience, thus increasing the addictive behavior. However, this hypothesis has not been tested for the case of snus. The current experiment used a modified Stroop task and a dot-probe task to investigate whether 40 snus users show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli, compared to 40 non-snus users. There were no significant differences between the two groups on reaction times or accuracy on either Stroop or dot-probe task, thus failing to show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli for snus users. This could imply that other mechanisms may contribute to maintenance of snus use than for other addictions. However, this is the first experimental study investigating attentional bias in snus users, and more research is warranted.

  10. Learning biases predict a word order universal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Legendre, Géraldine

    2012-03-01

    How recurrent typological patterns, or universals, emerge from the extensive diversity found across the world's languages constitutes a central question for linguistics and cognitive science. Recent challenges to a fundamental assumption of generative linguistics-that universal properties of the human language acquisition faculty constrain the types of grammatical systems which can occur-suggest the need for new types of empirical evidence connecting typology to biases of learners. Using an artificial language learning paradigm in which adult subjects are exposed to a mix of grammatical systems (similar to a period of linguistic change), we show that learners' biases mirror a word-order universal, first proposed by Joseph Greenberg, which constrains typological patterns of adjective, numeral, and noun ordering. We briefly summarize the results of a probabilistic model of the hypothesized biases and their effect on learning, and discuss the broader implications of the results for current theories of the origins of cross-linguistic word-order preferences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. A system for biasing a differential amplifier

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barbier, Daniel; Ittel, J.M.; Poujois, Robert

    1975-01-01

    This invention concerns a system for biasing a differential amplifier. It particularly applies to the integrated differential amplifiers designed with MOS field effect transistors. Variations in the technological parameters may well cause the amplifying transistors to work outside their usual operational area, in other words outside the linear part of the transfer characteristic. To ensure that these transistors function correctly, it is necessary that the value of the voltage difference at the output be equally null. To do this and to centre on the so called 'rest' point of the amplifier transfer charateristic, the condition will be set that the output potentials of each amplifier transistor should have a zero value or a constant value as sum. With this in view, the bias on the source (generally a transistor powered by its grid bias voltage) supplying current to the two amplifying transistors fitted in parallel, is permanently adjusted in a suitable manner [fr

  12. Looking on the bright side: biased attention and the human serotonin transporter gene.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fox, Elaine; Ridgewell, Anna; Ashwin, Chris

    2009-05-22

    Humans differ in terms of biased attention for emotional stimuli and these biases can confer differential resilience and vulnerability to emotional disorders. Selective processing of positive emotional information, for example, is associated with enhanced sociability and well-being while a bias for negative material is associated with neuroticism and anxiety. A tendency to selectively avoid negative material might also be associated with mental health and well-being. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these cognitive phenotypes are currently unknown. Here we show for the first time that allelic variation in the promotor region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) is associated with differential biases for positive and negative affective pictures. Individuals homozygous for the long allele (LL) showed a marked bias to selectively process positive affective material alongside selective avoidance of negative affective material. This potentially protective pattern was absent among individuals carrying the short allele (S or SL). Thus, allelic variation on a common genetic polymorphism was associated with the tendency to selectively process positive or negative information. The current study is important in demonstrating a genotype-related alteration in a well-established processing bias, which is a known risk factor in determining both resilience and vulnerability to emotional disorders.

  13. Disclosing bias in bisulfite assay: MethPrimers underestimate high DNA methylation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Fuso

    Full Text Available Discordant results obtained in bisulfite assays using MethPrimers (PCR primers designed using MethPrimer software or assuming that non-CpGs cytosines are non methylated versus primers insensitive to cytosine methylation lead us to hypothesize a technical bias. We therefore used the two kinds of primers to study different experimental models and methylation statuses. We demonstrated that MethPrimers negatively select hypermethylated DNA sequences in the PCR step of the bisulfite assay, resulting in CpG methylation underestimation and non-CpG methylation masking, failing to evidence differential methylation statuses. We also describe the characteristics of "Methylation-Insensitive Primers" (MIPs, having degenerated bases (G/A to cope with the uncertain C/U conversion. As CpG and non-CpG DNA methylation patterns are largely variable depending on the species, developmental stage, tissue and cell type, a variable extent of the bias is expected. The more the methylome is methylated, the greater is the extent of the bias, with a prevalent effect of non-CpG methylation. These findings suggest a revision of several DNA methylation patterns so far documented and also point out the necessity of applying unbiased analyses to the increasing number of epigenomic studies.

  14. Journal bias or author bias?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Ian

    2016-01-01

    I read with interest the comment by Mark Wilson in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics regarding bias and conflicts of interest in medical journals. Wilson targets one journal (the New England Journal of Medicine: NEJM) and one particular "scandal" to make his point that journals' decisions on publication are biased by commercial conflicts of interest (CoIs). It is interesting that he chooses the NEJM which, by his own admission, had one of the strictest CoI policies and had published widely on this topic. The feeling is that if the NEJM can be guilty, they can all be guilty.

  15. High Critical Current Coated Conductors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paranthaman, M. P.; Selvamanickam, V. (SuperPower, Inc.)

    2011-12-27

    One of the important critical needs that came out of the DOE’s coated conductor workshop was to develop a high throughput and economic deposition process for YBCO. Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique, the most critical steps in high technical micro fabrications, has been widely employed in semiconductor industry for various thin film growth. SuperPower has demonstrated that (Y,Gd)BCO films can be deposited rapid with world record performance. In addition to high critical current density with increased film thickness, flux pinning properties of REBCO films needs to be improved to meet the DOE requirements for various electric-power equipments. We have shown that doping with Zr can result in BZO nanocolumns, but at substantially reduced deposition rate. The primary purpose of this subtask is to develop high current density MOCVD-REBCO coated conductors based on the ion-beam assisted (IBAD)-MgO deposition process. Another purpose of this subtask is to investigate HTS conductor design optimization (maximize Je) with emphasis on stability and protection issues, and ac loss for REBCO coated conductors.

  16. A Developmental Neuroscience Perspective on Affect-Biased Attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Santiago; Fu, Xiaoxue; Pérez-Edgar, Koraly E.

    2016-01-01

    There is growing interest regarding the impact of affect-biased attention on psychopathology. However, most of the research to date lacks a developmental approach. In the present review, we examine the role affect-biased attention plays in shaping socioemotional trajectories within a developmental neuroscience framework. We propose that affect-biased attention, particularly if stable and entrenched, acts as a developmental tether that helps sustain early socioemotional and behavioral profiles over time, placing some individuals on maladaptive developmental trajectories. Although most of the evidence is found in the anxiety literature, we suggest that these relations may operate across multiple domains of interest, including positive affect, externalizing behaviors, drug use, and eating behaviors. We also review the general mechanisms and neural correlates of affect-biased attention, as well as the current evidence for the co-development of attention and affect. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose a model that may help us better understand the nuances of affect-biased attention across development. The model may serve as a strong foundation for ongoing attempts to identify neurocognitive mechanisms and intervene with individuals at risk. Finally, we discuss open issues for future research that may help bridge existing gaps in the literature. PMID:27606972

  17. Two sides of the same coin: Information processing style and reverse biases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shahar Ayal

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the effect of information processing styles (indexed by the Rational-Experiential Inventory of Pacini and Epstein, 1999 on adherence to bias judgments, and particularly to reverse biases; i.e., when two choice questions that comprise identical normative components are set in different situations and yield seemingly opposite behavioral biases. We found consistent evidence for a negative correlation between rational score and adherence to reverse biases, as well as overall biases, for all three pairs of reverse biases tested. Further, this effect of rational thinking was more pronounced for high experiential individuals, in that high-rational and high-experiential participants committed fewer biases than all other participants. These results lend weight to our claim that low-rational individuals, who are more sensitive to the context, are more prone to utilize some attribute of the provided information when it is uncalled for, but at the same time tend to ignore it or give it too little weight when it is a crucial factor in a normative decision process.

  18. An analytic current-voltage model for quasi-ballistic III-nitride high electron mobility transistors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Kexin; Rakheja, Shaloo

    2018-05-01

    We present an analytic model to describe the DC current-voltage (I-V) relationship in scaled III-nitride high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in which transport within the channel is quasi-ballistic in nature. Following Landauer's transport theory and charge calculation based on two-dimensional electrostatics that incorporates negative momenta states from the drain terminal, an analytic expression for current as a function of terminal voltages is developed. The model interprets the non-linearity of access regions in non-self-aligned HEMTs. Effects of Joule heating with temperature-dependent thermal conductivity are incorporated in the model in a self-consistent manner. With a total of 26 input parameters, the analytic model offers reduced empiricism compared to existing GaN HEMT models. To verify the model, experimental I-V data of InAlN/GaN with InGaN back-barrier HEMTs with channel lengths of 42 and 105 nm are considered. Additionally, the model is validated against numerical I-V data obtained from DC hydrodynamic simulations of an unintentionally doped AlGaN-on-GaN HEMT with 50-nm gate length. The model is also verified against pulsed I-V measurements of a 150-nm T-gate GaN HEMT. Excellent agreement between the model and experimental and numerical results for output current, transconductance, and output conductance is demonstrated over a broad range of bias and temperature conditions.

  19. Anticipated Regret and Omission Bias in HPV Vaccination Decisions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Niels Holm

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated effects of anticipated regret on parents’ HPV vaccination intentions and effects of omission bias on HPV vaccination intentions and vaccine uptake. An online survey was completed by 851 parents of adolescent girls in Denmark, a country where HPV vaccine safety is currently...... heavily debated. Multivariate regression analyses revealed anticipated inaction regret as a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, and, anticipated action regret as a significant negative predictor of vaccination intentions. Multivariate analyses also revealed omission bias...... in a hypothetical vaccination vignette as a significant negative predictor of HPV vaccination intention as well as vaccine uptake. Finally, the study tested effects of anticipated regret and omission bias on evaluations of two extisting Danish pro-vaccine campaign videos. Here, the result revealed anticipated...

  20. Resistance and resistance fluctuations in random resistor networks under biased percolation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pennetta, Cecilia; Reggiani, L; Trefán, Gy; Alfinito, E

    2002-06-01

    We consider a two-dimensional random resistor network (RRN) in the presence of two competing biased processes consisting of the breaking and recovering of elementary resistors. These two processes are driven by the joint effects of an electrical bias and of the heat exchange with a thermal bath. The electrical bias is set up by applying a constant voltage or, alternatively, a constant current. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to analyze the network evolution in the full range of bias values. Depending on the bias strength, electrical failure or steady state are achieved. Here we investigate the steady state of the RRN focusing on the properties of the non-Ohmic regime. In constant-voltage conditions, a scaling relation is found between /(0) and V/V(0), where is the average network resistance, (0) the linear regime resistance, and V0 the threshold value for the onset of nonlinearity. A similar relation is found in constant-current conditions. The relative variance of resistance fluctuations also exhibits a strong nonlinearity whose properties are investigated. The power spectral density of resistance fluctuations presents a Lorentzian spectrum and the amplitude of fluctuations shows a significant non-Gaussian behavior in the prebreakdown region. These results compare well with electrical breakdown measurements in thin films of composites and of other conducting materials.

  1. Context effects and observer bias--implications for forensic odontology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Page, Mark; Taylor, Jane; Blenkin, Matt

    2012-01-01

    Psychologists have long recognized the effects of contextual and extraneous information on decision making. Such information renders the subject susceptible to both motivational and cognitive bias; yet, it is difficult to assess the extent to which these influence forensic odontologists opinions as there have been no studies to date on this subject. This article explores the various types of contextual effects and biasing influences that potentially impact on the analysis of bitemarks in forensic odontology. It appears that the current practice of bitemark analysis is rich in sources of potentially biasing influences. In addition to the fundamental recognition that some form of bias is likely to exist, ways in which these should be minimized include: separation of the collection and analysis phases; limiting the amount of contextual information available to the odontologist responsible for the analysis; and ensuring that evidence that is ambiguous or of poor quality is identified as such prior to analysis. © 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  2. Pyroelectric response mechanism of barium strontium titanate ceramics in dielectric bolometer mode: The underlying essence of the enhancing effect of direct current bias field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mao, Chaoliang; Cao, Sheng; Yan, Shiguang; Yao, Chunhua; Cao, Fei; Wang, Genshui; Dong, Xianlin; Hu, Xu; Yang, Chunli

    2013-01-01

    Pyroelectric response mechanism of Ba 0.70 Sr 0.30 TiO 3 ceramics under dielectric bolometer (DB) mode was investigated by dielectric and pyroelectric properties measurement. The variations of total, intrinsic, and induced pyroelectric coefficients (p tot , p int , p ind ) with temperatures and bias fields were analyzed. p int plays the dominant role to p tot through most of the temperature range and p ind will be slightly higher than p int above T 0 . The essence of the enhancing effect of DC bias field on pyroelectric coefficient can be attributed to the high value of p int . This mechanism is useful for the pyroelectric materials (DB mode) applications.

  3. Solar-Blind Photodetector with High Avalanche Gains and Bias-Tunable Detecting Functionality Based on Metastable Phase α-Ga2O3/ZnO Isotype Heterostructures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xuanhu; Xu, Yang; Zhou, Dong; Yang, Sen; Ren, Fang-Fang; Lu, Hai; Tang, Kun; Gu, Shulin; Zhang, Rong; Zheng, Youdou; Ye, Jiandong

    2017-10-25

    The metastable α-phase Ga 2 O 3 is an emerging material for developing solar-blind photodetectors and power electronic devices toward civil and military applications. Despite its superior physical properties, the high quality epitaxy of metastable phase α-Ga 2 O 3 remains challenging. To this end, single crystalline α-Ga 2 O 3 epilayers are achieved on nonpolar ZnO (112̅0) substrates for the first time and a high performance Au/α-Ga 2 O 3 /ZnO isotype heterostructure-based Schottky barrier avalanche diode is demonstrated. The device exhibits self-powered functions with a dark current lower than 1 pA, a UV/visible rejection ratio of 10 3 and a detectivity of 9.66 × 10 12 cm Hz 1/2 W -1 . Dual responsivity bands with cutoff wavelengths at 255 and 375 nm are observed with their peak responsivities of 0.50 and 0.071 A W -1 at -5 V, respectively. High photoconductive gain at low bias is governed by a barrier lowing effect at the Au/Ga 2 O 3 and Ga 2 O 3 /ZnO heterointerfaces. The device also allows avalanche multiplication processes initiated by pure electron and hole injections under different illumination conditions. High avalanche gains over 10 3 and a low ionization coefficient ratio of electrons and holes are yielded, leading to a total gain over 10 5 and a high responsivity of 1.10 × 10 4 A W -1 . Such avalanche heterostructures with ultrahigh gains and bias-tunable UV detecting functionality hold promise for developing high performance solar-blind photodetectors.

  4. A new high performance current transducer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang Lijun; Lu Songlin; Li Deming

    2003-01-01

    A DC-100 kHz current transducer is developed using a new technique on zero-flux detecting principle. It was shown that the new current transducer is of high performance, its magnetic core need not be selected very stringently, and it is easy to manufacture

  5. Investigator Bias and Theory-Ladenness in Cross-Cultural Research: Insights from Wittgenstein

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Charlene

    2016-01-01

    A relatively under-explored topic in the current literature on and methods for research in the field of comparative and international education is the problem of investigator bias in cross-cultural research. This article discusses the nature of and an approach to address investigator bias in research that originates from the theory-ladenness of…

  6. Effects of target bias voltage on indium tin oxide films deposited by high target utilisation sputtering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calnan, Sonya; Upadhyaya, Hari M.; Dann, Sandra E.; Thwaites, Mike J.; Tiwari, Ayodhya N.

    2007-01-01

    Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were deposited by reactive High Target Utilisation Sputtering (HiTUS) onto glass and polyimide substrates. The ion plasma was generated by an RF power source while the target bias voltage was varied from 300 V to 500 V using a separate DC power supply. The deposition rate, at constant target power, increased with DC target voltage due to increased ion energy reaching 34 nm/min at 500 V. All the films were polycrystalline and showed strong (400) and (222) reflections with the relative strength of latter increasing with target bias voltage. The resistivity was lowest at 500 V with values of 1.8 x 10 -4 Ω cm and 2.4 x 10 -4 Ω cm on glass and polyimide, respectively but was still less than 5 x 10 -4 Ω cm at 400 V. All films were highly transparent to visible light, (> 80%) but the NIR transmittance decreased with increasing target voltage due to higher free carrier absorption. Therefore, ITO films can be deposited onto semiconductor layers such as in solar cells, with minimal ion damage while maintaining low resistivity

  7. Approach bias for food cues in obese individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to investigate the existence of an approach bias for food cues in obese individuals. A community sample of 56 obese women and 56 normal weight controls completed an approach-avoidance variant of the implicit association task. The obese participants were faster to respond to trials that paired food words with approach words, and trials that paired non-food words with avoid words, than the converse pairings, thus, demonstrating an approach bias for food. This bias was evident for both high caloric and low caloric food words, and was not attributable to a state of deprivation or feelings of hunger. By contrast, the normal weight controls did not show any such bias. The results are consistent with recent neurocognitive perspectives of obesity. At a practical level, approach biases for food may present a potential target for modifying (excessive) food intake.

  8. High sensitivity zero-biased magnetic field sensor based on multiphase laminate heterostructures with FeCuNbSiB nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Jing; Wen, Yumei; Li, Ping; Chen, Hengjia

    2016-05-01

    In this paper, a high sensitivity zero-biased magnetic field sensor based on multiphase laminate heterostructures consisting of FeCuNbSiB/Terfenol-D (Tb1-xDyxFe2)/PZT (Pb(Zr1-x,Tix)O3)/Terfenol-D/PZT/Ternol-D/FeCuNbSiB (FMPMPMF) is presented, whose ME coupling characteristics and sensing performances have been investigated. Compared to traditional Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D (MPM) and Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D (MPMPM) sensors, the zero-biased ME coupling characteristics of FMPMPMF sensor were significantly improved, owing to a build-in magnetic field in FeCuNbSiB/Terfenol-D layers. The optimum zero-biased resonant ME voltage coefficient of 3.02 V/Oe is achieved, which is 1.65 times as great as that of MPMPM and 2.51 times of MPM sensors. The mean value of low-frequency ME field coefficient of FMPMPMF reaches 122.53 mV/cm Oe, which is 2.39 times as great as that of MPMPM and 1.79 times of MPM sensors. Meanwhile, the induced zero-biased ME voltage of FMPMPMF sensor shows an excellent linear relationship to ac magnetic field both at the low frequency (1 kHz) and the resonant frequency (106.6 kHz). Remarkably, it indicates that the proposed zero-biased magnetic field sensor give the prospect of being able to applied to the field of highly sensitive ac magnetic field sensing.

  9. Attentional bias in high math-anxious individuals: evidence from an emotional Stroop task

    OpenAIRE

    Su?rez-Pellicioni, Macarena; N??ez-Pe?a, Maria Isabel; Colom?, ?ngels

    2015-01-01

    Attentional bias towards threatening or emotional information is considered a cognitive marker of anxiety, and it has been described in various clinical and subclinical populations. This study used an emotional Stroop task to investigate whether math anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias towards math-related words. Two previous studies failed to observe such an effect in math-anxious individuals, although the authors acknowledged certain methodological limitations that the present s...

  10. Tetrode bias power supply for Indus-1, synchrotron radiation source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tripathi, A.; Badapanda, M.K.; Tyagi, R.; Upadhyay, R.; Bohrey, A.; Hannurkar, P.R.

    2009-01-01

    An AC regulator based 7 kV, 3 A high voltage DC power supply is designed, fabricated and tested on dummy load for BEL make Tetrode type 15000CX, used in the high power RF amplifier at 31.613 MHz employed with INDUS-1, Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS). Various protections features like over voltage, under voltage, over current, phase failure and phase reversal are incorporated in this power supply and presented in this paper. As Tetrode amplifier requires various other power supplies in addition to this bias power supply and they are operated in a particular sequence for its healthy operation, suitable interlock arrangements have been incorporated and also presented in this paper. The reliable operation of protection and interlock features incorporated in this power supply has been checked with dummy load under simulated conditions. Three numbers of series limiting inductors, one in each phase, have been incorporated in this power supply to limit fault currents under unfavourable conditions and there by increasing the overall life of this power supply. It will replace existing 7 kV, 3 A HVDC power supply, which is in operation for more than fifteen years with Indus-1 SRS and is likely to be helpful in reducing the down time of Indus-1 SRS. It has better performance features than the existing power supply. The long term voltage stability better than 0.3 % and output ripple less than 0.3 % have been achieved for this Tetrode bias power supply. This power supply is likely to be integrated with INDUS-1 SRS soon. (author)

  11. Current transport mechanisms in lattice-matched Pt/Au-InAlN/GaN Schottky diodes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ren, Jian; Yan, Dawei, E-mail: daweiyan@jiangnan.edu.cn; Yang, Guofeng; Wang, Fuxue; Xiao, Shaoqing; Gu, Xiaofeng [Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Department of Electronic Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122 (China)

    2015-04-21

    Lattice-matched Pt/Au-In{sub 0.17}Al{sub 0.83}N/GaN hetreojunction Schottky diodes with circular planar structure have been fabricated and investigated by temperature dependent electrical measurements. The forward and reverse current transport mechanisms are analyzed by fitting the experimental current-voltage characteristics of the devices with various models. The results show that (1) the forward-low-bias current is mainly due to the multiple trap-assisted tunneling, while the forward-high-bias current is governed by the thermionic emission mechanism with a significant series resistance effect; (2) the reverse leakage current under low electric fields (<6 MV/cm) is mainly carried by the Frenkel-Poole emission electrons, while at higher fields the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling mechanism dominates due to the formation of a triangular barrier.

  12. Household chaos moderates the link between maternal attribution bias and parenting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Z.; Deater-Deckard, K.; Bell, M.A.

    2013-01-01

    Objective Parents who attribute child misbehavior to children's intentions and dismiss situational factors tend to show more hostility and less warmth in their parenting behavior, and are at greater risk for maltreatment. We extended this literature by investigating the role of household chaos as a moderator of the link between maternal attribution biases and parenting behaviors. Design The current sample included 160 mothers of 3- to7-year-old children. Mothers provided reports on their attribution biases and household chaos levels. Maternal negativity and positivity were measured using self-reports and observers’ ratings. Results The links between attribution bias and parenting behavior were stronger in more chaotic environments, with the moderating effect of chaos being particularly strong for internal attribution bias. Conclusions The findings point to the importance of social cognitive biases in the etiology of maternal behavior in family contexts that lack order and predictability. PMID:24358017

  13. Implicit and Explicit Memory Bias in Opiate Dependent, Abstinent and Normal Individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jafar Hasani

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The aim of current research was to assess implicit and explicit memory bias to drug related stimuli in opiate Dependent, abstinent and normal Individuals. Method: Three groups including opiate Dependent, abstinent and normal Individuals (n=25 were selected by available sampling method. After matching on the base of age, education level and type of substance use all participants assessed by recognition task (explicit memory bias and stem completion task (implicit memory bias. Results: The analysis of data showed that opiate dependent and abstinent groups in comparison with normal individual had implicit memory bias, whereas in explicit memory only opiate dependent individuals showed bias. Conclusion: The identification of explicit and implicit memory governing addiction may have practical implications in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of substance abuse.

  14. Differential effects of approach bias and eating style on unhealthy food consumption in overweight and normal weight women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kakoschke, Naomi; Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

    2017-11-01

    The current study aimed to examine the effects of approach bias for unhealthy food and trait eating style on consumption of unhealthy food in overweight and normal weight individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate women aged 17 - 26 years. They completed an Approach-Avoidance Task, the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (to assess restrained, emotional, and external eating), and a taste test to measure consumption of unhealthy food. An external eating style predicted increased consumption of unhealthy food. Among overweight participants, external and emotional eating style individually moderated the relationship between approach bias for unhealthy food and subsequent consumption. Specifically, approach bias was positively related to consumption in high external and emotional eaters, but negatively related to consumption in low emotional eaters. These interactions were not observed among normal weight participants. Practically, the results suggest that overweight individuals who are external or emotional eaters may benefit from interventions that aim to modify approach bias towards unhealthy food cues to reduce problematic eating behaviour.

  15. Peak-locking centroid bias in Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anugu, Narsireddy; Garcia, Paulo J. V.; Correia, Carlos M.

    2018-05-01

    Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing relies on accurate spot centre measurement. Several algorithms were developed with this aim, mostly focused on precision, i.e. minimizing random errors. In the solar and extended scene community, the importance of the accuracy (bias error due to peak-locking, quantization, or sampling) of the centroid determination was identified and solutions proposed. But these solutions only allow partial bias corrections. To date, no systematic study of the bias error was conducted. This article bridges the gap by quantifying the bias error for different correlation peak-finding algorithms and types of sub-aperture images and by proposing a practical solution to minimize its effects. Four classes of sub-aperture images (point source, elongated laser guide star, crowded field, and solar extended scene) together with five types of peak-finding algorithms (1D parabola, the centre of gravity, Gaussian, 2D quadratic polynomial, and pyramid) are considered, in a variety of signal-to-noise conditions. The best performing peak-finding algorithm depends on the sub-aperture image type, but none is satisfactory to both bias and random errors. A practical solution is proposed that relies on the antisymmetric response of the bias to the sub-pixel position of the true centre. The solution decreases the bias by a factor of ˜7 to values of ≲ 0.02 pix. The computational cost is typically twice of current cross-correlation algorithms.

  16. Quench properties of high current superconductors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garber, M; Sampson, W B

    1980-01-01

    A technique has been developed which allows the simultaneous determination of most of the important parameters of a high current superconductor. The critical current, propagation velocity, normal state resistivity, magnetoresistance, and enthalpy are determined as a function of current and applied field. The measurements are made on non-inductive samples which simulate conditions in full scale magnets. For wide, braided conductors the propagation velocity was found to vary approximately quadratically with current in the 2 to 5 kA region. A number of conductors have been tested including some Nb/sub 3/Sn braids which have critical currents in excess of 10 kA at 5 T, 4.2 K.

  17. High-current beam transport in electrostatic accelerator tubes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramian, G.; Elais, L.

    1987-01-01

    The UCSB Free Electron Laser (FEL) has successfully demonstrated the use of a commercial 6 megavolt electrostatic accelerator as a high current beam source in a recirculating configuration. The accelerator, manufactured by National Electrostatics Corp. (NEC), Middleton WI, uses two standard high gradient accelerator tubes. Suppression of ion multiplication was accomplished by NEC with apertures and a shaped electrostatic field. This field shaping has fortuitously provided a periodically reversing radial field component with sufficient focusing strength to transport electron beams of up to 3 Amps current. Present two-stage FEL work requires a 20 Amp beam and proposed very high voltage FEL designs require currents as high as 100 Amps. A plan to permit transport of such high current beams by the addition of solenoidal focussing elements is described

  18. The relationship between adult reactive and proactive aggression, hostile interpretation bias, and antisocial personality disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lobbestael, Jill; Cima, Maaike; Arntz, Arnoud

    2013-02-01

    Reactive aggression (RA) refers to angry responses to provocation or frustration, while proactive aggression (PA) denotes nonemotional, instrumental, and unprovoked aggression. The current study examined personality-related and cognitive correlates of both aggressive types. Respectively, the predictive values of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and of hostile interpretation bias, which is the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli in a hostile manner, were studied. The sample consisted of n = 37 male adult patients with mixed diagnoses and n = 29 male nonpatients that responded to vignettes and pictures of ambiguous situations, using both open and closed answer formats. ASPD was assessed by means of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II disorders (SCID-II), and the Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) measured RA and PA. Results showed that although both RA and PA types were predicted by ASPD traits, RA was additionally predicted by a hostile interpretation bias. These findings suggest that reducing hostile bias is a promising avenue for clinical treatment of ASPD-patients high in RA.

  19. A Method for Estimating BeiDou Inter-frequency Satellite Clock Bias

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LI Haojun

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available A new method for estimating the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias is proposed, considering the shortage of the current methods. The constant and variable parts of the inter-frequency satellite clock bias are considered in the new method. The data from 10 observation stations are processed to validate the new method. The characterizations of the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias are also analyzed using the computed results. The results of the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias indicate that it is stable in the short term. The estimated BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias results are molded. The model results show that the 10 parameters of model for each satellite can express the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias well and the accuracy reaches cm level. When the model parameters of the first day are used to compute the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias of the second day, the accuracy also reaches cm level. Based on the stability and modeling, a strategy for the BeiDou satellite clock service is presented to provide the reference of our BeiDou.

  20. Exploring cognitive bias in destination therapy left ventricular assist device decision making: A retrospective qualitative framework analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magid, Molly; McIlvennan, Colleen K; Jones, Jaqueline; Nowels, Carolyn T; Allen, Larry A; Thompson, Jocelyn S; Matlock, Dan

    2016-10-01

    Cognitive biases are psychological influences, which cause humans to make decisions, which do not seemingly maximize utility. For people with heart failure, the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a surgically implantable device with complex tradeoffs. As such, it represents an excellent model within which to explore cognitive bias in a real-world decision. We conducted a framework analysis to examine for evidence of cognitive bias among people deciding whether or not to get an LVAD. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of cognitive bias on the LVAD decision-making process. We analyzed previously conducted interviews of patients who had either accepted or declined an LVAD using a deductive, predetermined framework of cognitive biases. We coded and analyzed the interviews using an inductive-deductive framework approach, which also allowed for other themes to emerge. We interviewed a total of 22 heart failure patients who had gone through destination therapy LVAD decision making (15 who had accepted the LVAD and 7 who had declined). All patients appeared influenced by state dependence, where both groups described high current state of suffering, but the groups differed in whether they believed LVAD would relieve suffering or not. We found evidence of cognitive bias that appeared to influence decision making in both patient groups, but groups differed in terms of which cognitive biases were present. Among accepters, we found evidence of anchoring bias, availability bias, optimism bias, and affective forecasting. Among decliners, we found evidence of errors in affective forecasting. Medical decision making is often a complicated and multifaceted process that includes cognitive bias as well as other influences. It is important for clinicians to recognize that patients can be affected by cognitive bias, so they can better understand and improve the decision-making process to ensure that patients are fully informed. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  1. The Effect of Amplifier Bias Drift on Differential Magnitude Estimation in Multiple-Star Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tyler, David W.; Muralimanohar, Hariharan; Borelli, Kathy J.

    2007-02-01

    We show how the temporal drift of CCD amplifier bias can cause significant relative magnitude estimation error in speckle interferometric observations of multiple-star systems. When amplifier bias varies over time, the estimation error arises if the time between acquisition of dark-frame calibration data and science data is long relative to the timescale over which the bias changes. Using analysis, we show that while detector-temperature drift over time causes a variation in accumulated dark current and a residual bias in calibrated imagery, only amplifier bias variations cause a residual bias in the estimated energy spectrum. We then use telescope data taken specifically to investigate this phenomenon to show that for the detector used, temporal bias drift can cause residual energy spectrum bias as large or larger than the mean value of the noise energy spectrum. Finally, we use a computer simulation to demonstrate the effect of residual bias on differential magnitude estimation. A supplemental calibration technique is described in the appendices.

  2. Spin–orbit coupling induced magnetoresistance oscillation in a dc biased two-dimensional electron system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, C M; Lei, X L

    2014-01-01

    We study dc-current effects on the magnetoresistance oscillation in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, using the balance-equation approach to nonlinear magnetotransport. In the weak current limit the magnetoresistance exhibits periodical Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation with changing Rashba coupling strength for a fixed magnetic field. At finite dc bias, the period of the oscillation halves when the interbranch contribution to resistivity dominates. With further increasing current density, the oscillatory resistivity exhibits phase inversion, i.e., magnetoresistivity minima (maxima) invert to maxima (minima) at certain values of the dc bias, which is due to the current-induced magnetoresistance oscillation. (paper)

  3. Junctionless Diode Enabled by Self-Bias Effect of Ion Gel in Single-Layer MoS2 Device.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Muhammad Atif; Rathi, Servin; Park, Jinwoo; Lim, Dongsuk; Lee, Yoontae; Yun, Sun Jin; Youn, Doo-Hyeb; Kim, Gil-Ho

    2017-08-16

    The self-biasing effects of ion gel from source and drain electrodes on electrical characteristics of single layer and few layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) field-effect transistor (FET) have been studied. The self-biasing effect of ion gel is tested for two different configurations, covered and open, where ion gel is in contact with either one or both, source and drain electrodes, respectively. In open configuration, the linear output characteristics of the pristine device becomes nonlinear and on-off ratio drops by 3 orders of magnitude due to the increase in "off" current for both single and few layer MoS 2 FETs. However, the covered configuration results in a highly asymmetric output characteristics with a rectification of around 10 3 and an ideality factor of 1.9. This diode like behavior has been attributed to the reduction of Schottky barrier width by the electric field of self-biased ion gel, which enables an efficient injection of electrons by tunneling at metal-MoS 2 interface. Finally, finite element method based simulations are carried out and the simulated results matches well in principle with the experimental analysis. These self-biased diodes can perform a crucial role in the development of high-frequency optoelectronic and valleytronic devices.

  4. Tuning of tunneling current noise spectra singularities by localized states charging

    OpenAIRE

    Mantsevich, V. N.; Maslova, N. S.

    2008-01-01

    We report the results of theoretical investigations of tunneling current noise spectra in a wide range of applied bias voltage. Localized states of individual impurity atoms play an important role in tunneling current noise formation. It was found that switching "on" and "off" of Coulomb interaction of conduction electrons with two charged localized states results in power law singularity of low-frequency tunneling current noise spectrum ($1/f^{\\alpha}$) and also results on high frequency com...

  5. High-current power supply for accelerator magnets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourkland, K.R.; Winje, R.A.

    1978-01-01

    A power supply for controlling the current to accelerator magnets produces a high current at a precisely controlled time rate of change by varying the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit that includes the magnet and applying the current to the magnet during a predetermined portion of the waveform of an oscillation. The current is kept from going negative despite the reverse-current characteristics of thyristors by a quenching circuit

  6. Immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Katherine; Van Boven, Leaf

    2012-08-01

    In seven studies of naturally occurring, "real-world" emotional events, people demonstrated an immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons, perceiving their own current or recent emotional reactions as more intense compared with others' emotional reactions to the same events. The events examined include crossing a scary bridge (study 1a), a national tragedy (study 1b), terrorist attacks (studies 2a and 3b), a natural disaster (study 2b), and a presidential election (study 3b). These perceived differences between one's own and others' emotions declined over time, as relatively immediate and recent emotions subsided, a pattern that people were not intuitively aware of (study 2c). This immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons emerged for both explicit comparisons (studies 1a, 1b, and 3b), and for absolute judgments of emotional intensity (studies 2a, 2b, and 3a). Finally, the immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons was reduced when people were reminded that emotional display norms might lead others' appearances to understate emotional intensity (studies 3a and 3b). Implications of these findings for social-emotional phenomena are discussed.

  7. Asymmetry in the normal-metal to high-Tc superconductor tunnel junction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flensberg, K.; Hedegaard, P.; Brix, M.

    1988-01-01

    We show that the observed asymmetry in the I-V characteristics of high-T c material to normal metal junctions can be explained within the Resonating-Valence-Bond model. For a bias current with electrons moving from the superconductor to the normal metal the current is quadratic in the bias voltage, and in the opposite case with electrons moving from the normal metal to the superconductor the current is linear in V. (orig.)

  8. CPI Bias in Korea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chul Chung

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available We estimate the CPI bias in Korea by employing the approach of Engel’s Law as suggested by Hamilton (2001. This paper is the first attempt to estimate the bias using Korean panel data, Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS. Following Hamilton’s model with non­linear specification correction, our estimation result shows that the cumulative CPI bias over the sample period (2000-2005 was 0.7 percent annually. This CPI bias implies that about 21 percent of the inflation rate during the period can be attributed to the bias. In light of purchasing power parity, we provide an interpretation of the estimated bias.

  9. Cognitive biases can affect moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Caviola, L.; Mannino, A.; Savulescu, J.; Faulmüller, N.

    2014-01-01

    Research into cognitive biases that impair human judgment has mostly been applied to the area of economic decision-making. Ethical decision-making has been comparatively neglected. Since ethical decisions often involve very high individual as well as collective stakes, analyzing how cognitive biases

  10. Method for introducing bias magnetization in ungaped cores

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aguilar, Andres Revilla; Munk-Nielsen, Stig

    2014-01-01

    The use of permanent magnets for bias magnetization is a known technique to increase the energy storage capability in DC inductors, resulting in a size reduction or increased current rating. This paper presents a brief introduction on the different permanent magnet inductor’s configurations found...

  11. Angular dependence of SiO2 etch rate at various bias voltages in a high density CHF3 plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Gyeo-Re; Hwang, Sung-Wook; Min, Jae-Ho; Moon, Sang Heup

    2002-01-01

    The dependence of the SiO 2 etch rate on the angle of ions incident on the substrate surface was studied over a bias voltage range from -20 to -600 V in a high-density CHF 3 plasma using a Faraday cage to control the ion incident angle. The effect of the bottom plane on the sidewall etching was also examined. Differences in the characteristics of the etch rate as a function of the ion angle were observed for different bias voltage regions. When the absolute value of the bias voltage was smaller than 200 V, the normalized etch rate (NER) defined as the etch rate normalized by the rate on the horizontal surface, changed following a cosine curve with respect to the ion incident angle, defined as the angle between the ion direction and the normal of the substrate surface. When the magnitude of the bias voltage was larger than 200 V, the NER was deviated to higher values from those given by a cosine curve at ion angles between 30 deg. and 70 deg. , and then drastically decreased at angles higher than 70 deg. until a net deposition was observed at angles near 90 deg. . The characteristic etch-rate patterns at ion angles below 70 deg. were determined by the ion energy transferred to the surface, which affected the SiO 2 etch rate and, simultaneously, the rate of removal of a fluorocarbon polymer film formed on the substrate surface. At high ion angles, particles emitted from the bottom plane contributed to polymer formation on and affected the etching characteristics of the substrate

  12. The Effects of Halo Assembly Bias on Self-Calibration in Galaxy Cluster Surveys

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, Hao-Yi; Rozo, Eduardo; Wechsler, Risa H.

    2008-08-07

    Self-calibration techniques for analyzing galaxy cluster counts utilize the abundance and the clustering amplitude of dark matter halos. These properties simultaneously constrain cosmological parameters and the cluster observable-mass relation. It was recently discovered that the clustering amplitude of halos depends not only on the halo mass, but also on various secondary variables, such as the halo formation time and the concentration; these dependences are collectively termed 'assembly bias'. Applying modified Fisher matrix formalism, we explore whether these secondary variables have a significant impact on the study of dark energy properties using the self-calibration technique in current (SDSS) and the near future (DES, SPT, and LSST) cluster surveys. The impact of the secondary dependence is determined by (1) the scatter in the observable-mass relation and (2) the correlation between observable and secondary variables. We find that for optical surveys, the secondary dependence does not significantly influence an SDSS-like survey; however, it may affect a DES-like survey (given the high scatter currently expected from optical clusters) and an LSST-like survey (even for low scatter values and low correlations). For an SZ survey such as SPT, the impact of secondary dependence is insignificant if the scatter is 20% or lower but can be enhanced by the potential high scatter values introduced by a highly-correlated background. Accurate modeling of the assembly bias is necessary for cluster self-calibration in the era of precision cosmology.

  13. The basis of shooter biases: beyond cultural stereotypes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Saul L; Zielaskowski, Kate; Plant, E Ashby

    2012-10-01

    White police officers and undergraduate students mistakenly shoot unarmed Black suspects more than White suspects on computerized shoot/don't shoot tasks. This bias is typically attributed to cultural stereotypes of Black men. Yet, previous research has not examined whether such biases emerge even in the absence of cultural stereotypes. The current research investigates whether individual differences in chronic beliefs about interpersonal threat interact with target group membership to elicit shooter biases, even when group membership is unrelated to race or cultural stereotypes about danger. Across two studies, participants with strong beliefs about interpersonal threats were more likely to mistakenly shoot outgroup members than ingroup members; this was observed for unfamiliar, arbitrarily formed groups using a minimal group paradigm (Study 1) and racial groups not culturally stereotyped as dangerous (Asians; Study 2). Implications for the roles of both group membership and cultural stereotypes in shaping decisions to shoot are discussed.

  14. Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geoff Potvin

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors, we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women’s lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.

  15. Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potvin, Geoff; Hazari, Zahra

    2016-12-01

    [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors), we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women's lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.

  16. Ironic effects of racial bias during interracial interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shelton, J Nicole; Richeson, Jennifer A; Salvatore, Jessica; Trawalter, Sophie

    2005-05-01

    Previous research has suggested that Blacks like White interaction partners who make an effort to appear unbiased more than those who do not. We tested the hypothesis that, ironically, Blacks perceive White interaction partners who are more racially biased more positively than less biased White partners, primarily because the former group must make more of an effort to control racial bias than the latter. White participants in this study completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a measure of racial bias and then discussed race relations with either a White or a Black partner. Whites' IAT scores predicted how positively they were perceived by Black (but not White) interaction partners, and this relationship was mediated by Blacks' perceptions of how engaged the White participants were during the interaction. We discuss implications of the finding that Blacks may, ironically, prefer to interact with highly racially biased Whites, at least in short interactions.

  17. Attentional biases toward body images in males at high risk of muscle dysmorphia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinhong Jin

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective Although research on muscle dysmorphia (MD, a body dysmorphic disorder subtype, has recently increased, the causes and mechanisms underlying this disorder remain unclear. Results from studies examining disorders associated with body image suggest the involvement of self-schema in biasing attention toward specific body information. The present study examined whether individuals at higher risk of MD also display attentional biases toward specific types of body images. Methods The validated Chinese version of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale was used to distinguish men at higher and lower risk of MD. Sixty-five adult Chinese men at higher (HRMD, n = 33 and lower risk of MD (LRMD, n = 32 performed a visual probe task. Initially, an image of a bodybuilder with either larger or smaller musculature was presented on one side of a central point, with a neutral image of a car exterior presented on the other side along the horizontal plane for 2,000 ms. The paired images were removed, and a visual target (a dot was displayed in the location of one of the previously shown images. Participants were asked to indicate the location of the target, and their eye movements were recorded during the entire visual presentation. Participant reaction time and three eye movement measurements (gaze direction, first saccade latency, and first fixation duration were recorded for use in determining attentional bias. Results The HRMD group revealed biases in orienting and maintaining their attention on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures. Participants in this group consequently had a shorter reaction time in identifying the target that appeared at the location in which an image of a bodybuilder with a larger musculature had been previously displayed. They also directed their initial gaze more frequently, had shorter saccade latency, and had longer first fixation duration on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures (all p < .0001

  18. Attentional biases toward body images in males at high risk of muscle dysmorphia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Xinhong; Jin, Yahong; Zhou, Shi; Yang, Shun-Nan; Chang, Shuzhi; Li, Hui

    2018-01-01

    Although research on muscle dysmorphia (MD), a body dysmorphic disorder subtype, has recently increased, the causes and mechanisms underlying this disorder remain unclear. Results from studies examining disorders associated with body image suggest the involvement of self-schema in biasing attention toward specific body information. The present study examined whether individuals at higher risk of MD also display attentional biases toward specific types of body images. The validated Chinese version of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale was used to distinguish men at higher and lower risk of MD. Sixty-five adult Chinese men at higher (HRMD, n  = 33) and lower risk of MD (LRMD, n  = 32) performed a visual probe task. Initially, an image of a bodybuilder with either larger or smaller musculature was presented on one side of a central point, with a neutral image of a car exterior presented on the other side along the horizontal plane for 2,000 ms. The paired images were removed, and a visual target (a dot) was displayed in the location of one of the previously shown images. Participants were asked to indicate the location of the target, and their eye movements were recorded during the entire visual presentation. Participant reaction time and three eye movement measurements (gaze direction, first saccade latency, and first fixation duration) were recorded for use in determining attentional bias. The HRMD group revealed biases in orienting and maintaining their attention on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures. Participants in this group consequently had a shorter reaction time in identifying the target that appeared at the location in which an image of a bodybuilder with a larger musculature had been previously displayed. They also directed their initial gaze more frequently, had shorter saccade latency, and had longer first fixation duration on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures (all p  < .0001). In comparison, the LRMD group had

  19. A fast and zero-biased photodetector based on GaTe-InSe vertical 2D p-n heterojunction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, W.; Jin, Z.; Yuan, J.; Zhang, J.; Jia, S.; Dong, L.; Yoon, J.; Zhou, L.; Vajtai, R.; Tour, J. M.; Ajayan, P. M.; Hu, P.; Lou, J.

    2018-04-01

    p-n junctions serve as the building blocks for fundamental semiconductor devices, such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodetectors. With recent studies unveiling the excellent optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, they are considered to be superb candidates for high performance p-n junctions. Here, we fabricate a vertical GaTe-InSe van der Waals (vdWs) p-n heterojunction by a PDMS-assisted transfer technique without etching. The fabricated p-n heterojunction shows gate-tunable current-rectifying behavior with a rectification factor reaching 1000. In addition, it features fast photodetection under zero bias as well as a high power conversion efficiency (PCE). Under 405 nm laser excitation, the zero-biased photodetector shows a high responsivity of 13.8 mA W-1 as well as a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 4.2%. Long-term stability is also observed and a response time of 20 µs is achieved due to stable and fast carrier transit through the built-in electric field in the depletion region. Fast and efficient charge separation in the vertical 2D p-n junction paves the way for developing 2D photodetectors with zero dark current, high speed and low power consumption.

  20. Numerical modelling of pump limiter biasing on TEXTOR-94 and Tore Supra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerhauser, H.; Claassen, H.A.; Mank, G.; Zagorski, R.; Loarer, T.; Gunn, J.; Boucher, C.

    2002-01-01

    The two-dimensional multifluid code TECXY has been used to model the biasing (with respect to the first wall) of the toroidal belt limiter ALT-II on the tokamak TEXTOR-94 and of the new toroidal pump limiter being installed on Tore Supra tokamak in the framework of the CIEL project. It is well known that the edge flow pattern can be influenced by the poloidal electric drifts from imposing radial electric fields. The modelling with TECXY introduces imprinted bias currents in the scrape-off layer (SOL) for the case of negative (limiter) biasing, and imprinted bias potentials for the case of positive biasing. This allowed us to simulate sufficiently well the experimental I-V characteristics for either biasing of ALT-II and also reproduced the essential features and trends of the observed plasma profiles in the SOL of TEXTOR-94. For negative biasing a moderate improvement of the pumping exhaust efficiency can be achieved in the case of TEXTOR. For Tore Supra, however, only a negligible improvement of the limiter performance with biasing can be predicted, which is explained by the relatively weak drift flows in Tore Supra. (author)

  1. Implementation of Self-Bias Transistor on Voting Logic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harzawardi Hasim; Syirrazie Che Soh

    2014-01-01

    Study in the eld of digital integrated circuit (IC) already become common to the modern industrial. Day by day we have been introduced with new gadget that was developed based on transistor. This paper will study the implementation of self-bias transistor on voting logic. The self-bias transistor will connected both on pull-up network and pull-down network. On previous research, study on comparison of total number of transistors, time propagation delay, and frequency between NAND and NOR gate of voting logic. It's show, with the same number of transistor, NAND gate achieve high frequency and low time propagation delay compare to NOR gate. We extend this analysis by comparing the total number of transistor, time propagation delay, frequency and power dissipation between common NAND gate with self-bias NAND gate. Extensive LTSpice simulations were performed using IBM 90 nm CMOS(Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) process technology. The result show self-bias voting NAND gate consumes 54 % less power dissipation, 43% slow frequency and 43 % high time propagation delay compare to common voting NAND gate. (author)

  2. Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Podsakoff, Philip M; MacKenzie, Scott B; Podsakoff, Nathan P

    2012-01-01

    Despite the concern that has been expressed about potential method biases, and the pervasiveness of research settings with the potential to produce them, there is disagreement about whether they really are a problem for researchers in the behavioral sciences. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to explore the current state of knowledge about method biases. First, we explore the meaning of the terms "method" and "method bias" and then we examine whether method biases influence all measures equally. Next, we review the evidence of the effects that method biases have on individual measures and on the covariation between different constructs. Following this, we evaluate the procedural and statistical remedies that have been used to control method biases and provide recommendations for minimizing method bias.

  3. Direct-to-consumer antidepressant advertising and consumers' optimistic bias about the future risk of depression: the moderating role of advertising skepticism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jin Seong; Ju, Ilwoo; Kim, Kenneth Eunhan

    2014-01-01

    Although exposure to direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA) is reported to influence the public's beliefs about diseases, no research has investigated how DTCA may affect the extent of consumers' optimistic bias about the future risk of diseases. Based on a survey with members of an online consumer panel (n = 699), the current study revealed that: (a) Consumers exhibited a tendency to believe they were at less risk of developing clinical depression in the future than their peers, demonstrating an optimistic bias. (b) Exposure to antidepressant DTCA acted to reduce the extent of such bias, especially when consumers were less skeptical of prescription drug advertising. When consumers were highly skeptical, DTCA exposure did not significantly relate to the extent of optimistic bias. (c) Once formed, the extent of optimistic bias negatively related to consumers' intention to seek information about depression. Implications of the research for the theory and practice of DTCA were discussed.

  4. Revealing the Cosmic Web-dependent Halo Bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xiaohu; Zhang, Youcai; Lu, Tianhuan; Wang, Huiyuan; Shi, Feng; Tweed, Dylan; Li, Shijie; Luo, Wentao; Lu, Yi; Yang, Lei

    2017-10-01

    Halo bias is the one of the key ingredients of the halo models. It was shown at a given redshift to be only dependent, to the first order, on the halo mass. In this study, four types of cosmic web environments—clusters, filaments, sheets, and voids—are defined within a state-of-the-art high-resolution N-body simulation. Within these environments, we use both halo-dark matter cross correlation and halo-halo autocorrelation functions to probe the clustering properties of halos. The nature of the halo bias differs strongly between the four different cosmic web environments described here. With respect to the overall population, halos in clusters have significantly lower biases in the {10}11.0˜ {10}13.5 {h}-1 {M}⊙ mass range. In other environments, however, halos show extremely enhanced biases up to a factor 10 in voids for halos of mass ˜ {10}12.0 {h}-1 {M}⊙ . Such a strong cosmic web environment dependence in the halo bias may play an important role in future cosmological and galaxy formation studies. Within this cosmic web framework, the age dependency of halo bias is found to be only significant in clusters and filaments for relatively small halos ≲ {10}12.5 {h}-1 {M}⊙ .

  5. Cognitive biases to healthy and unhealthy food words predict change in BMI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calitri, Raff; Pothos, Emmanuel M; Tapper, Katy; Brunstrom, Jeffrey M; Rogers, Peter J

    2010-12-01

    The current study explored the predictive value of cognitive biases to food cues (assessed by emotional Stroop and dot probe tasks) on weight change over a 1-year period. This was a longitudinal study with undergraduate students (N = 102) living in shared student accommodation. After controlling for the effects of variables associated with weight (e.g., physical activity, stress, restrained eating, external eating, and emotional eating), no effects of cognitive bias were found with the dot probe. However, for the emotional Stroop, cognitive bias to unhealthy foods predicted an increase in BMI whereas cognitive bias to healthy foods was associated with a decrease in BMI. Results parallel findings in substance abuse research; cognitive biases appear to predict behavior change. Accordingly, future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining, encouraging individuals to reorient attention away from unhealthy eating cues.

  6. Various Recipes of SiNx Passivated AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors in Correlation with Current Slump

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ling, Yang; Yue, Hao; Xiao-Hua, Ma; Si, Quan; Gui-Zhou, Hu; Shou-Gao, Jiang; Li-Yuan, Yang

    2009-01-01

    The current slump of different recipes of SiN x passivated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is investigated. The dc and pulsed current-voltage curves of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs using different recipes are analyzed. It is found that passivation leakage has a strong relationship with NH 3 flow in the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor phase deposition process, which has impacted on the current collapse of SiN x passivated devices. We analyze the pulsed I DS – V DS characteristics of different recipes of SiN x passivation devices for different combinations of gate and drain quiescent biases (V GS0 , V DS0 ) of (0, 0), (−6, 0), (−6, 15) and (0, 15)V. The possible mechanisms are the traps in SiN x passivation capturing the electrons and the surface states at the SiN x /AlGaN interface, which can affect the channel of two-dimensional electron gas and cause the current collapse. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)

  7. Diagnostics for the Biased Electrode Experiment on NSTX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roquemore, A.L.; Zweben, S.J.; Bush, C.E.; Kaita, R.; Marsalsa, R.J.; Maqueda, R.J.

    2009-01-01

    A linear array of four small biased electrodes was installed in NSTX in an attempt to control the width of the scrape-off layer (SOL) by creating a strong local poloidal electric field. The set of electrodes were separated poloidally by a 1 cm gap between electrodes and were located slightly below the midplane of NSTX, 1 cm behind the RF antenna and oriented so that each electrode is facing approximately normal to the magnetic field. Each electrode can be independently biased to ± 100 volts. Present power supplies limit the current on two electrodes to 30 amps the other two to 10 amps each. The effect of local biasing was measured with a set of Langmuir probes placed between the electrodes and another set extending radially outward from the electrodes, and also by the gas puff imaging diagnostic (GPI) located 1 m away along the magnetic field lines intersecting the electrodes. Two fast cameras were also aimed directly at the electrode array. The hardware and controls of the biasing experiment will be presented and the initial effects on local plasma parameters will be discussed

  8. A Friendly Turn: Advertising Bias in the News Media

    OpenAIRE

    Ruenzi, Stefan; Focke, Florens; Niessen-Ruenzi, Alexandra

    2014-01-01

    This paper investigates whether newspapers report more favorably about advertising corporate clients than about other firms. Our identification strategy based on high-dimensional fixed effects and high frequency advertising data shows that advertising leads to more positive press coverage. This advertising bias in reporting is found among local and national newspapers. Further results show that advertising bias manifests particularly in less negative reporting after bad news events such as ne...

  9. All in Its Proper Time: Monitoring the Emergence of a Memory Bias for Novel, Arousing-Negative Words in Individuals with High and Low Trait Anxiety

    OpenAIRE

    Eden, Annuschka Salima; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Keuper, Katharina; Junghöfer, Markus; Laeger, Inga; Zwanzger, Peter; Dobel, Christian

    2014-01-01

    The well-established memory bias for arousing-negative stimuli seems to be enhanced in high trait-anxious persons and persons suffering from anxiety disorders. We monitored the emergence and development of such a bias during and after learning, in high and low trait anxious participants. A word-learning paradigm was applied, consisting of spoken pseudowords paired either with arousing-negative or neutral pictures. Learning performance during training evidenced a short-lived advantage for arou...

  10. TRMM-3B43 Bias Correction over the High Elevations of the Contiguous United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashemi, H.; Nordin, K. M.; Lakshmi, V.; Knight, R. J.

    2016-12-01

    Precipitation can be quantified using a rain gauge network, or a remotely sensed precipitation product. Ultimately, the choice of dataset depends on the particular application, the catchment size, climate and the time period of study. In a region with a long record and a dense rain gauge network, the elevation-modified ground-based precipitation product, PRISM, has been found to work well. However, in poorly gauged regions the use of remotely sensed precipitation products is an absolute necessity. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) has provided valuable precipitation datasets for hydrometeorological studies over the past two decades (1998-2015). One concern regarding the usage of TRMM data is the accuracy of the precipitation estimates, when compared to those obtained using PRISM. The reason for this concern is that TRMM and PRISM do not always agree and, typically, TRMM underestimates PRISM over the mountainous regions of the United States. In this study, we develop a correction function to improve the accuracy of the TRMM monthly product (TRMM-3B43) by estimating and removing the bias in the satellite data using the ground-based precipitation product, PRISM. We observe a strong relationship between the bias and land surface elevation; TRMM-3B43 tends to underestimate the PRISM product at altitudes greater than 1500 m above mean sea level (m.amsl) in the contiguous United States. A relationship is developed between TRMM-PRISM bias and elevation. The correction function is used to adjust the TRMM monthly precipitation using PRISM and elevation data. The model is calibrated using 25% of the available time period and the remaining 75% of the time period is used for validation. The corrected TRMM-3B43 product is verified for the high elevations over the contiguous United States and two local regions in the mountainous areas of the western United States. The results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of the TRMM product in the high elevations of

  11. A New Source Biasing Approach in ADVANTG

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bevill, Aaron M.; Mosher, Scott W.

    2012-01-01

    The ADVANTG code has been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to generate biased sources and weight window maps for MCNP using the CADIS and FW-CADIS methods. In preparation for an upcoming RSICC release, a new approach for generating a biased source has been developed. This improvement streamlines user input and improves reliability. Previous versions of ADVANTG generated the biased source from ADVANTG input, writing an entirely new general fixed-source definition (SDEF). Because volumetric sources were translated into SDEF-format as a finite set of points, the user had to perform a convergence study to determine whether the number of source points used accurately represented the source region. Further, the large number of points that must be written in SDEF-format made the MCNP input and output files excessively long and difficult to debug. ADVANTG now reads SDEF-format distributions and generates corresponding source biasing cards, eliminating the need for a convergence study. Many problems of interest use complicated source regions that are defined using cell rejection. In cell rejection, the source distribution in space is defined using an arbitrarily complex cell and a simple bounding region. Source positions are sampled within the bounding region but accepted only if they fall within the cell; otherwise, the position is resampled entirely. When biasing in space is applied to sources that use rejection sampling, current versions of MCNP do not account for the rejection in setting the source weight of histories, resulting in an 'unfair game'. This problem was circumvented in previous versions of ADVANTG by translating volumetric sources into a finite set of points, which does not alter the mean history weight ((bar w)). To use biasing parameters without otherwise modifying the original cell-rejection SDEF-format source, ADVANTG users now apply a correction factor for (bar w) in post-processing. A stratified-random sampling approach in ADVANTG is under

  12. Substrate bias induced synthesis of flowered-like bunched carbon nanotube directly on bulk nickel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bisht, Atul [Polymorphic Carbon Thin Films Group, Physics of Energy Harvesting Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR Campus, New Delhi 110012 (India); Chockalingam, S. [Polymorphic Carbon Thin Films Group, Physics of Energy Harvesting Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Panwar, O.S., E-mail: ospanwar@mail.nplindia.ernet.in [Polymorphic Carbon Thin Films Group, Physics of Energy Harvesting Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR Campus, New Delhi 110012 (India); Kesarwani, A.K. [Polymorphic Carbon Thin Films Group, Physics of Energy Harvesting Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR Campus, New Delhi 110012 (India); Singh, B.P. [Physics and Engineering of Carbon Materials, Division of Materials Physics and Engineering, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR Campus, New Delhi 110012 (India); Singh, V.N. [Electron and Ion Microscopy, Sophisticated and Analytical Instruments, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India); Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR Campus, New Delhi 110012 (India)

    2016-02-15

    Highlights: • Flowered-like bunched MWCNTs have been synthesized by MW PECVD technique. • Effect of substrate bias on the properties of MWCNT has been studied. • Minimum E{sub T} = 1.9 V/μm with β = 4770 has been obtained in the film deposited at −350 V. - Abstract: This paper reports the effect of substrate bias on the multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) deposited on nickel foil by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique. The MWCNTs have been characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Raman spectroscopy, field emission and current–voltage characteristic of the heterojunction diode. The SEM images exhibit unique hierarchical flowered-like bunched and conformally coated MWCNTs. Substrate bias induced ion bombardment helps in the enhancement of hydrocarbon dissociation and is responsible for flowered-like MWCNTs growth. The HRTEM micrographs show the base growth mechanism for MWCNTs. The value of turn on field for emission decreases from 5.5 to 1.9 V/μm and field enhancement factor increases from 927 to 4770, respectively, with the increase of substrate bias. The diode ideality factor of CNT/ n-Si heterojunction is evaluated as 2.4 and the on/off current ratio is found to be 7 at ±2 V, respectively.

  13. USING COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND LENSING TO CONSTRAIN THE MULTIPLICATIVE BIAS OF COSMIC SHEAR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vallinotto, Alberto

    2012-01-01

    Weak gravitational lensing is one of the key probes of cosmology. Cosmic shear surveys aimed at measuring the distribution of matter in the universe are currently being carried out (Pan-STARRS) or planned for the coming decade (DES, LSST, EUCLID, WFIRST). Crucial to the success of these surveys is the control of systematics. In this work, a new method to constrain one such family of systematics, known as multiplicative bias, is proposed. This method exploits the cross-correlation between weak-lensing measurements from galaxy surveys and the ones obtained from high-resolution cosmic microwave background experiments. This cross-correlation is shown to have the power to break the degeneracy between the normalization of the matter power spectrum and the multiplicative bias of cosmic shear and to be able to constrain the latter to a few percent.

  14. Approximate Bias Correction in Econometrics

    OpenAIRE

    James G. MacKinnon; Anthony A. Smith Jr.

    1995-01-01

    This paper discusses ways to reduce the bias of consistent estimators that are biased in finite samples. It is necessary that the bias function, which relates parameter values to bias, should be estimable by computer simulation or by some other method. If so, bias can be reduced or, in some cases that may not be unrealistic, even eliminated. In general, several evaluations of the bias function will be required to do this. Unfortunately, reducing bias may increase the variance, or even the mea...

  15. A voltage biased superconducting quantum interference device bootstrap circuit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Xiaoming; Wang Huiwu; Wang Yongliang; Dong Hui; Jiang Mianheng; Zhang Yi; Krause, Hans-Joachim; Braginski, Alex I; Offenhaeusser, Andreas; Mueck, Michael

    2010-01-01

    We present a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readout circuit operating in the voltage bias mode and called a SQUID bootstrap circuit (SBC). The SBC is an alternative implementation of two existing methods for suppression of room-temperature amplifier noise: additional voltage feedback and current feedback. Two circuit branches are connected in parallel. In the dc SQUID branch, an inductively coupled coil connected in series provides the bias current feedback for enhancing the flux-to-current coefficient. The circuit branch parallel to the dc SQUID branch contains an inductively coupled voltage feedback coil with a shunt resistor in series for suppressing the preamplifier noise current by increasing the dynamic resistance. We show that the SBC effectively reduces the preamplifier noise to below the SQUID intrinsic noise. For a helium-cooled planar SQUID magnetometer with a SQUID inductance of 350 pH, a flux noise of about 3 μΦ 0 Hz -1/2 and a magnetic field resolution of less than 3 fT Hz -1/2 were obtained. The SBC leads to a convenient direct readout electronics for a dc SQUID with a wider adjustment tolerance than other feedback schemes.

  16. High current vacuum closing switch

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dolgachev, G.I.; Maslennikov, D.D.; Romanov, A.S.; Ushakov, A.G.

    2005-01-01

    The paper proposes a powerful pulsed closing vacuum switch for high current commutation consisting of series of the vacuum diodes with near 1 mm gaps having closing time determined by the gaps shortening with the near-electrode plasmas [ru

  17. Application of source biasing technique for energy efficient DECODER circuit design: memory array application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Neha; Parihar, Priyanka; Neema, Vaibhav

    2018-04-01

    Researchers have proposed many circuit techniques to reduce leakage power dissipation in memory cells. If we want to reduce the overall power in the memory system, we have to work on the input circuitry of memory architecture i.e. row and column decoder. In this research work, low leakage power with a high speed row and column decoder for memory array application is designed and four new techniques are proposed. In this work, the comparison of cluster DECODER, body bias DECODER, source bias DECODER, and source coupling DECODER are designed and analyzed for memory array application. Simulation is performed for the comparative analysis of different DECODER design parameters at 180 nm GPDK technology file using the CADENCE tool. Simulation results show that the proposed source bias DECODER circuit technique decreases the leakage current by 99.92% and static energy by 99.92% at a supply voltage of 1.2 V. The proposed circuit also improves dynamic power dissipation by 5.69%, dynamic PDP/EDP 65.03% and delay 57.25% at 1.2 V supply voltage.

  18. The fabrication of ordered arrays of exchange biased Ni/FeF2 nanostructures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovylina, M; Labarta, A; Batlle, X; Erekhinsky, M; Schuller, I K; Morales, R

    2010-01-01

    The fabrication of ordered arrays of exchange biased Ni/FeF 2 nanostructures by focused ion beam lithography is reported. High quality nano-elements, with controlled removal depth and no significant re-deposition, were carved using small ion beam currents (30 pA), moderate dwell times (1 μs) and repeated passages over the same area. Two types of nanostructures were fabricated: square arrays of circular dots with diameters from 125 ± 8 to 500 ± 12 nm and periodicities ranging from 200 ± 8 to 1000 ± 12 nm, and square arrays of square antidots (207 ± 8 nm in edge length) with periodicities ranging from 300 ± 8 to 1200 ± 12 nm. The arrays were characterized using scanning ion and electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The effect of the patterning on the exchange bias field (i.e., the shift in the hysteresis loop of ferromagnetic Ni due to proximity to antiferromagnetic FeF 2 ) was studied using magneto-transport measurements. These high quality nanostructures offer a unique method to address some of the open questions regarding the microscopic origin of exchange bias. This is not only of major relevance in the fabrication and miniaturization of magnetic devices but it is also one of the important proximity phenomena in nanoscience and materials science.

  19. Intrinsic current oscillations in an asymmetric triple-barrier resonant tunnelling diode

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wójcik, P; Spisak, B J; Wołoszyn, M; Adamowski, J

    2010-01-01

    The electronic transport characteristics of an asymmetric triple-barrier resonant tunnelling diode are calculated by the time-dependent Wigner–Poisson method. The intrinsic current oscillations are found in two separate bias voltage ranges. The first one is located below the resonant current peak, and the second lies in the negative differential resistance region. We provide the explanation of the current density oscillations in these two separate bias voltage ranges based on the analysis of the self-consistent potential profiles and changes of electron density. We have shown that two different formation mechanisms are responsible for the current density oscillations in these two bias voltage ranges. In the bias voltage range below the resonant current peak in the current–voltage characteristics, the current density oscillations are caused by the coupling between quasi-bound states in the left and right quantum wells. On the other hand, the current density oscillations in the negative differential resistance region result from the coupling between quasi-bound states in the left quantum well and the quantum well formed in the region of the left contact

  20. Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: an fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eden, Annuschka S; Dehmelt, Vera; Bischoff, Matthias; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Kugel, Harald; Keuper, Kati; Zwanzger, Peter; Dobel, Christian

    2015-01-01

    Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety) participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit and implicit memory was assessed directly after training and in three follow-ups at 4-day intervals. The behavioral results demonstrate that associative word-learning leads to an explicit (but no implicit) memory bias for negatively linked pseudowords, relative to neutral ones, which confirms earlier studies. Bilateral amygdala activation underlines the behavioral effect: Higher trait anxiety is correlated with stronger amygdala activation for negatively linked pseudowords than for neutrally linked ones. Most interestingly, this effect is also present for negatively paired pseudowords that participants could not remember well. Moreover, neutrally paired pseudowords evoked higher amygdala reactivity than completely novel ones in highly anxious persons, which can be taken as evidence for generalization. These findings demonstrate that few word-learning trials generate a memory bias for emotional stimuli, indexed both behaviorally and neurophysiologically. Importantly, the typical memory bias for emotional stimuli and the generalization to neutral ones is larger in high anxious persons.

  1. Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: An fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annuschka Salima Eden

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit and implicit memory was assessed directly after training and in three follow-ups at four-day intervals. The behavioral results demonstrate that associative word-learning leads to an explicit (but no implicit memory bias for negatively linked pseudowords, relative to neutral ones, which confirms earlier studies. Bilateral amygdala activation underlines the behavioral effect: Higher trait anxiety is correlated with stronger amygdala activation for negatively linked pseudowords than for neutrally linked ones. Most interestingly, this effect is also present for negatively paired pseudowords that participants could not remember well. Moreover, neutrally paired pseudowords evoked higher amygdala reactivity than completely novel ones in highly anxious persons, which can be taken as evidence for generalization. These findings demonstrate that few word-learning trials generate a memory bias for emotional stimuli, indexed both behaviorally and neurophysiologically. Importantly, the typical memory bias for emotional stimuli and the generalization to neutral ones is larger in high anxious persons.

  2. Effects of constant voltage and constant current stress in PCBM:P3HT solar cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cester, Andrea; Rizzo, Aldo; Bazzega, A.

    2015-01-01

    The aimof this work is the investigation of forward and reverse bias stress effects, cell self-heating and annealing in roll coated organic solar cells with PCBM:P3HT active layer. In reverse bias stress cells show a constant degradation over time. In forward current stress cells alternate...... mechanisms: the decrease of the net generation rate (due to formation of exciton quenching centres or the reduction of exciton separation rate); the formation of small leaky paths between anode and cathode, which reduces the total current extracted from the cell. The stress-induced damage can be recovered...... degradation and annealing phases, which are explained through the high power dissipation during the current stress, and the consequent self-heating. The high temperature is able to recover the cell performances at least until a critical temperature is reached. The degradation can be explained by the following...

  3. Model of divertor biasing and control of scrape-off layer and divertor plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagasaki, K.; Itoh, K.; Itoh, S.

    1991-02-01

    Analytic model of the divertor biasing is described. For the given plasma and energy sources from the core plasma, the heat and particle flux densities on the divertor plate as well as scrape-off-layer (SOL)/divertor plasmas are analyzed in a slab model. Using a two-dimensional model, the effects of the divertor biasing and SOL current are studied. The conditions to balance the plasma temperature or sheath potential on different divertor plates are obtained. Effect of the SOL current on the heat channel width is also discussed. (author)

  4. Electronegative plasma diagnostic by laser photo-detachment combined with negatively biased Langmuir probe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oudini, N.; Sirse, N.; Taccogna, F.; Ellingboe, A. R.; Bendib, A.

    2018-05-01

    We propose a new technique for diagnosing negative ion properties using Langmuir probe assisted pulsed laser photo-detachment. While the classical technique uses a laser pulse to convert negative ions into electron-atom pairs and a positively biased Langmuir probe tracking the change of electron saturation current, the proposed method uses a negatively biased Langmuir probe to track the temporal evolution of positive ion current. The negative bias aims to avoid the parasitic electron current inherent to probe tip surface ablation. In this work, we show through analytical and numerical approaches that, by knowing electron temperature and performing photo-detachment at two different laser wavelengths, it is possible to deduce plasma electronegativity (ratio of negative ion to electron densities) α, and anisothermicity (ratio of electron to negative ion temperatures) γ-. We present an analytical model that links the change in the collected positive ion current to plasma electronegativity and anisothermicity. Particle-In-Cell simulation is used as a numerical experiment covering a wide range of α and γ- to test the new analysis technique. The new technique is sensitive to α in the range 0.5 1.

  5. A face detection bias for horizontal orientations develops in middle childhood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin J Balas

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Faces are complex stimuli that can be described via intuitive facial features like the eyes, nose, and mouth, configural features like the distances between facial landmarks, and features that correspond to computations performed in the early visual system (e.g. oriented edges. With regard to this latter category of descriptors, adult face recognition relies disproportionately on information in specific spatial frequency and orientation bands: Many recognition tasks are performed more accurately when adults have access to mid-range spatial frequencies (8-16 cycles/face and horizontal orientations (Dakin & Watt, 2009. In the current study, we examined how this information bias develops in middle childhood. We recruited children between the ages of 5-10 years old to participate in a simple categorization task that required them to label images according to whether they depicted a face or a house. Critically, children were presented with face and house images comprised either of primarily horizontal orientation energy, primarily vertical orientation energy, or both horizontal and vertical orientation energy. We predicted that any bias favoring horizontal information over vertical should be more evident in faces than in houses, and also that older children would be more likely to show such a bias than younger children. We designed our categorization task to be sufficiently easy that children would perform at near-ceiling accuracy levels, but with variation in response times that would reflect how they rely on different orientations as a function of age and object category. We found that horizontal bias for face detection (but not house detection correlated significantly with age, suggesting an emergent category-specific bias for horizontal orientation energy that develops during middle childhood. These results thus suggest that the tuning of high-level recognition to specific low-level visual features takes take place over several years of visual

  6. High field, low current operation of engineering test reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwartz, J.; Cohn, D.R.; Bromberg, L.; Williams, J.E.C.

    1987-06-01

    Steady state engineering test reactors with high field, low current operation are investigated and compared to high current, lower field concepts. Illustrative high field ETR parameters are R = 3 m, α ∼ 0.5 m, B ∼ 10 T, β = 2.2% and I = 4 MA. For similar wall loading the fusion power of an illustrative high field, low current concept could be about 50% that of a lower field device like TIBER II. This reduction could lead to a 50% decrease in tritium consumption, resulting in a substantial decrease in operating cost. Furthermore, high field operation could lead to substantially reduced current drive requirements and cost. A reduction in current drive source power on the order of 40 to 50 MW may be attainable relative to a lower field, high current design like TIBER II implying a possible cost savings on the order of $200 M. If current drive is less efficient than assumed, the savings could be even greater. Through larger β/sub p/ and aspect ratio, greater prospects for bootstrap current operation also exist. Further savings would be obtained from the reduced size of the first wall/blanket/shield system. The effects of high fields on magnet costs are very dependent on technological assumptions. Further improvements in the future may lie with advances in superconducting and structural materials

  7. Bias correction of daily satellite precipitation data using genetic algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pratama, A. W.; Buono, A.; Hidayat, R.; Harsa, H.

    2018-05-01

    Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) was producted by blending Satellite-only Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation (CHIRP) with Stasion observations data. The blending process was aimed to reduce bias of CHIRP. However, Biases of CHIRPS on statistical moment and quantil values were high during wet season over Java Island. This paper presented a bias correction scheme to adjust statistical moment of CHIRP using observation precipitation data. The scheme combined Genetic Algorithm and Nonlinear Power Transformation, the results was evaluated based on different season and different elevation level. The experiment results revealed that the scheme robustly reduced bias on variance around 100% reduction and leaded to reduction of first, and second quantile biases. However, bias on third quantile only reduced during dry months. Based on different level of elevation, the performance of bias correction process is only significantly different on skewness indicators.

  8. Efficiency enhancement using voltage biasing for ferroelectric polarization in dye-sensitized solar cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sangmo; Song, Myoung Geun; Bark, Chung Wung

    2018-01-01

    Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are one of the most promising third generation solar cells that have been extensively researched over the past decade as alternative to silicon-based solar cells, due to their low production cost and high energy-conversion efficiency. In general, a DSSC consists of a transparent electrode, a counter electrode, and an electrolyte such as dye. To achieve high power-conversion efficiency in cells, many research groups have focused their efforts on developing efficient dyes for liquid electrolytes. In this work, we report on the photovoltaic properties of DSSCs fabricated using a mixture of TiO2 with nanosized Fe-doped bismuth lanthanum titanate (nFe-BLT) powder). Firstly, nFe-BLT powders were prepared using a high-energy ball milling process and then, TiO2 and nFe-BLT powders were stoichiometrically blended. Direct current (DC) bias of 20 MV/m was applied to lab-made DSSCs. With the optimal concentration of nFe-BLT doped in the electrode, their light-to-electricity conversion efficiency could be improved by ∼64% compared with DSSCs where no DC bias was applied.

  9. Force and light tuning vertical tunneling current in the atomic layered MoS2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Feng; Lu, Zhixing; Lan, Yann-Wen; Jiao, Liying; Xu, Minxuan; Zhu, Xiaoyang; Zhang, Xiankun; Wu, Hualin; Qi, Junjie

    2018-07-06

    In this work, the vertical electrical transport behavior of bilayer MoS 2 under the coupling of force and light was explored by the use of conductive atomic force microscopy. We found that the current-voltage behavior across the tip-MoS 2 -Pt junction is a tunneling current that can be well fitted by a Simmons approximation. The transport behavior is direct tunneling at low bias and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling at high bias, and the transition voltage and tunnel barrier height are extracted. The effect of force and light on the effective band gap of the junction is investigated. Furthermore, the source-drain current drops surprisingly when we continually increase the force, and the dropping point is altered by the provided light. This mechanism is responsible for the tuning of tunneling barrier height and width by force and light. These results provide a new way to design devices that take advantage of ultrathin two-dimensional materials. Ultrashort channel length electronic components that possess tunneling current are important for establishing high-efficiency electronic and optoelectronic systems.

  10. Conduction channels at finite bias in single-atom gold contacts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brandbyge, Mads; Kobayashi, Nobuhiko; Tsukada, Masaru

    1999-01-01

    We consider the effect of a finite voltage bias on the conductance of single-atom gold contacts. We employ a nonorthogonal spn-tight-binding Hamiltonian combined with a local charge neutrality assumption. The conductance and charge distributions for finite bias are calculated using the nonequilib......We consider the effect of a finite voltage bias on the conductance of single-atom gold contacts. We employ a nonorthogonal spn-tight-binding Hamiltonian combined with a local charge neutrality assumption. The conductance and charge distributions for finite bias are calculated using...... of the eigenchannels projected onto tight-binding orbitals. We find a single almost fully transmitting channel with mainly s character for low bias while for high bias this channel becomes less transmitting and additional channels involving only d orbitals start to conduct....

  11. Highly efficient red electrophosphorescent devices at high current densities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Youzhi; Zhu Wenqing; Zheng Xinyou; Sun, Runguang; Jiang Xueyin; Zhang Zhilin; Xu Shaohong

    2007-01-01

    Efficiency decrease at high current densities in red electrophosphorescent devices is drastically restrained compared with that from conventional electrophosphorescent devices by using bis(2-methyl-8-quinolinato)4-phenylphenolate aluminum (BAlq) as a hole and exciton blocker. Ir complex, bis(2-(2'-benzo[4,5-α]thienyl) pyridinato-N,C 3' ) iridium (acetyl-acetonate) is used as an emitter, maximum external quantum efficiency (QE) of 7.0% and luminance of 10000cd/m 2 are obtained. The QE is still as high as 4.1% at higher current density J=100mA/cm 2 . CIE-1931 co-ordinates are 0.672, 0.321. A carrier trapping mechanism is revealed to dominate in the process of electroluminescence

  12. Full-wave current conveyor precision rectifier

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đukić Slobodan R.

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available A circuit that provides precision rectification of small signal with low temperature sensitivity for frequencies up to 100 kHz without waveform distortion is presented. It utilizes an improved second type current conveyor based on current-steering output stage and biased silicon diodes. The use of a DC current source to bias the rectifying diodes provides higher temperature stability and lower DC offset level at the output. Proposed design of the precision rectifier ensures good current transfer linearity in the range that satisfy class A of the amplifier and good voltage transfer characteristic for low level signals. Distortion during the zero crossing of the input signal is practically eliminated. Design of the proposed rectifier is realized with standard components.

  13. The Forward-Bias Puzzle: A Solution Based on Covered Interest Parity

    OpenAIRE

    Pippenger, John

    2009-01-01

    The forward-bias puzzle is probably the most important puzzle in international macroeconomics. After more than 20 years, there is no accepted solution. My solution is based on covered interest parity (CIP). CIP implies: (1) Forward rates are not rational expectations of future spot rates. Those expectations depend on future spot rates and interest rate differentials. (2) The forward bias is the result of a specification error, replacing future forward exchange rates with current forward ...

  14. Codon usage bias analysis for the coding sequences of Camellia ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    sunny t

    2016-02-24

    Feb 24, 2016 ... suggested that codon usage bias is driven by selection, particularly for .... For example, as mentioned above, highly expressed genes tend to use fewer ... directional codon bias measure effective number of codons (ENc) was ...

  15. Bias-Voltage Stabilizer for HVHF Amplifiers in VHF Pulse-Echo Measurement Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Hojong; Park, Chulwoo; Kim, Jungsuk; Jung, Hayong

    2017-10-23

    The impact of high-voltage-high-frequency (HVHF) amplifiers on echo-signal quality is greater with very-high-frequency (VHF, ≥100 MHz) ultrasound transducers than with low-frequency (LF, ≤15 MHz) ultrasound transducers. Hence, the bias voltage of an HVHF amplifier must be stabilized to ensure stable echo-signal amplitudes. We propose a bias-voltage stabilizer circuit to maintain stable DC voltages over a wide input range, thus reducing the harmonic-distortion components of the echo signals in VHF pulse-echo measurement systems. To confirm the feasibility of the bias-voltage stabilizer, we measured and compared the deviations in the gain of the HVHF amplifier with and without a bias-voltage stabilizer. Between -13 and 26 dBm, the measured gain deviations of a HVHF amplifier with a bias-voltage stabilizer are less than that of an amplifier without a bias-voltage stabilizer. In order to confirm the feasibility of the bias-voltage stabilizer, we compared the pulse-echo responses of the amplifiers, which are typically used for the evaluation of transducers or electronic components used in pulse-echo measurement systems. From the responses, we observed that the amplitudes of the echo signals of a VHF transducer triggered by the HVHF amplifier with a bias-voltage stabilizer were higher than those of the transducer triggered by the HVHF amplifier alone. The second, third, and fourth harmonic-distortion components of the HVHF amplifier with the bias-voltage stabilizer were also lower than those of the HVHF amplifier alone. Hence, the proposed scheme is a promising method for stabilizing the bias voltage of an HVHF amplifier, and improving the echo-signal quality of VHF transducers.

  16. Attentional Bias to Food Cues in Youth with Loss of Control Eating

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shank, Lisa M.; Tanofsky-Kraff, Marian; Nelson, Eric E.; Shomaker, Lauren B.; Ranzenhofer, Lisa M.; Hannallah, Louise M.; Field, Sara E.; Vannucci, Anna; Bongiorno, Diana M.; Brady, Sheila M.; Condarco, Tania; Demidowich, Andrew; Kelly, Nichole R.; Cassidy, Omni; Simmons, W. Kyle; Engel, Scott G.; Pine, Daniel S.; Yanovski, Jack A.

    2014-01-01

    Emerging data indicate that adults with binge eating may exhibit an attentional bias toward highly palatable foods, which may promote obesogenic eating patterns and excess weight gain. However, it is unknown to what extent youth with loss of control (LOC) eating display a similar bias. We therefore studied 76 youth (14.5±2.3y; 86.8% female; BMI-z 1.7± .73) with (n=47) and without (n=29) reported LOC eating. Following a breakfast to reduce hunger, youth participated in a computerized visual probe task of sustained attention that assessed reaction time to pairs of pictures consisting of high palatable foods, low palatable foods, and neutral household objects. Although sustained attentional bias did not differ by LOC eating presence and was unrelated to body weight, a two-way interaction between BMI-z and LOC eating was observed (p = .01), such that only among youth with LOC eating, attentional bias toward high palatable foods versus neutral objects was positively associated with BMI-z. These findings suggest that LOC eating and body weight interact in their association with attentional bias to highly palatable foods cues, and may partially explain the mixed literature linking attentional bias to food cues with excess body weight. PMID:25435490

  17. Training interpretation biases among individuals with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Premo, Julie E; Sarfan, Laurel D; Clerkin, Elise M

    2016-03-01

    The current study provided an initial test of a Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretations (CBM-I) training paradigm among a sample with elevated BDD symptoms (N=86). As expected, BDD-relevant interpretations were reduced among participants who completed a positive (vs. comparison) training program. Results also pointed to the intriguing possibility that modifying biased appearance-relevant interpretations is causally related to changes in biased, socially relevant interpretations. Further, providing support for cognitive behavioral models, residual change in interpretations was associated with some aspects of in vivo stressor responding. However, contrary to expectations there were no significant effects of condition on emotional vulnerability to a BDD stressor, potentially because participants in both training conditions experienced reductions in biased socially-threatening interpretations following training (suggesting that the "comparison" condition was not inert). These findings have meaningful theoretical and clinical implications, and fit with transdiagnostic conceptualizations of psychopathology. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Reward sensitivity, attentional bias, and executive control in early adolescent alcohol use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Hemel-Ruiter, Madelon E; de Jong, Peter J; Ostafin, Brian D; Wiers, Reinout W

    2015-01-01

    This study examined whether attentional bias for alcohol stimuli was associated with alcohol use in young adolescents, and whether the frequently demonstrated relationship between reward sensitivity and adolescent alcohol use would be partly mediated by attentional bias for alcohol cues. In addition, this study investigated the potential moderating role of executive control (EC), and tested whether the relationship between alcohol-related attentional bias and alcohol use was especially present in young adolescents with weak EC. Participants were 86 adolescents (mean age=14.86), who completed a Visual Probe Task (VPT) as an index of attentional bias, a flanker-task based Attention Network Task (ANT) as an index of EC, the sensitivity of punishment and sensitivity of reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) as an index of reward sensitivity, and an alcohol use questionnaire. High reward sensitivity, high alcohol-related attentional bias, and weak EC were all related to alcohol use. The relationship between reward sensitivity and alcohol use was not mediated by alcohol-related attentional bias. As hypothesized, attentional bias was only associated with alcohol use in participants with weak EC. Together, the present findings are consistent with the view that high reward sensitivity and low EC may be considered as risk factors for adolescent alcohol use. The independent contribution of reward sensitivity and attentional bias might suggest that adolescents who are highly reward sensitive and display an attentional bias for alcohol cues are at even higher risk for excessive alcohol use and developing alcohol abuse problems. Future research using a longitudinal approach would allow an examination of these risk factors on subsequent alcohol use. Treatment implications are discussed, including the importance of strengthening EC and reducing the rewarding value of alcohol use. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Framing obesity a disease: Indirect effects of affect and controllability beliefs on weight bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nutter, Sarah; Alberga, Angela S; MacInnis, Cara; Ellard, John H; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly

    2018-05-24

    Obesity has been declared a disease by the American and Canadian Medical Associations. Although these declarations sparked much debate as to the impact of framing obesity as a disease on weight bias, strong empirical research is needed to examine this impact. The current study examined the impact of framing obesity a disease on weight bias, focusing on moderating and mediating processes. A sample of 309 participants living in the United States or Canada was recruited from Crowdflower. Participants completed measures of demographics, ideology, general attitudes, and previous contact quality and quantity with people living with obesity. Participants then read one of three articles as part of an experimental manipulation framing obesity as a disease, obesity not as a disease, and a control article unrelated to obesity. Post-manipulation included measures of affect, disgust, empathy, blame, and weight bias. Orthogonal contrasts were used to compare the obesity-disease condition to the obesity-not-disease condition and control condition. The manipulation had a direct effect on affect (emotions), such that affect toward individuals with obesity was more positive in the obesity-disease condition than the obesity-not-disease and control condition combined. Exploration of moderating effects revealed that both the belief in a just world and weight satisfaction moderated the relationship between the obesity-disease manipulation and blame for obesity. Two models of indirect effects on weight bias were also examined, which demonstrated that the obesity-disease manipulation predicted less weight bias through more positive affect (model 1) as well as less weight bias through decreased blame among individuals high in belief in a just world (model 2). This study further highlights the complex effects of declaring obesity a disease, uncovering a new direction for future research into the role of affect as well as indirect effects of characterising obesity a disease on weight bias.

  20. Simulating publication bias

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Paldam, Martin

    is censoring: selection by the size of estimate; SR3 selects the optimal combination of fit and size; and SR4 selects the first satisficing result. The last four SRs are steered by priors and result in bias. The MST and the FAT-PET have been developed for detection and correction of such bias. The simulations......Economic research typically runs J regressions for each selected for publication – it is often selected as the ‘best’ of the regressions. The paper examines five possible meanings of the word ‘best’: SR0 is ideal selection with no bias; SR1 is polishing: selection by statistical fit; SR2...... are made by data variation, while the model is the same. It appears that SR0 generates narrow funnels much at odds with observed funnels, while the other four funnels look more realistic. SR1 to SR4 give the mean a substantial bias that confirms the prior causing the bias. The FAT-PET MRA works well...

  1. Categorisation salience and ingroup bias: the buffering role of a multicultural ideology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa-Lopes, Rui; Pereira, Cícero Roberto; Judd, Charles M

    2014-12-01

    The current work sought to test the moderating role of a multicultural ideology on the relationship between categorisation salience and ingroup bias. Accordingly, in one experimental study, we manipulated categorisation salience and the accessibility of a multicultural ideology, and measured intergroup attitudes. Results show that categorisation salience only leads to ingroup bias when a multiculturalism (MC) ideology is not made salient. Thus, MC ideology attenuates the negative effects of categorisation salience on ingroup bias. These results pertain to social psychology in general showing that the cognitive processes should be construed within the framework of ideological contexts. © 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.

  2. Simple, high current, antimony ion source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugiura, H.

    1979-01-01

    A simple metal ion source capable of producing a continuous, uncontaminated, high current beam of Sb ions is presented. It produced a total ion current of 200 μA at 1 kV extraction voltage. A discharge occurred in the source at a pressure of 6 x 10 -4 Torr. The ion current extracted from the source increased with the 3/2 power of the extraction voltage. The perveance of the source and ion density in the plasma were 8 x 10 -9 and 1.8 x 10 11 cm -3 , respectively

  3. Estimating Climatological Bias Errors for the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adler, Robert; Gu, Guojun; Huffman, George

    2012-01-01

    A procedure is described to estimate bias errors for mean precipitation by using multiple estimates from different algorithms, satellite sources, and merged products. The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly product is used as a base precipitation estimate, with other input products included when they are within +/- 50% of the GPCP estimates on a zonal-mean basis (ocean and land separately). The standard deviation s of the included products is then taken to be the estimated systematic, or bias, error. The results allow one to examine monthly climatologies and the annual climatology, producing maps of estimated bias errors, zonal-mean errors, and estimated errors over large areas such as ocean and land for both the tropics and the globe. For ocean areas, where there is the largest question as to absolute magnitude of precipitation, the analysis shows spatial variations in the estimated bias errors, indicating areas where one should have more or less confidence in the mean precipitation estimates. In the tropics, relative bias error estimates (s/m, where m is the mean precipitation) over the eastern Pacific Ocean are as large as 20%, as compared with 10%-15% in the western Pacific part of the ITCZ. An examination of latitudinal differences over ocean clearly shows an increase in estimated bias error at higher latitudes, reaching up to 50%. Over land, the error estimates also locate regions of potential problems in the tropics and larger cold-season errors at high latitudes that are due to snow. An empirical technique to area average the gridded errors (s) is described that allows one to make error estimates for arbitrary areas and for the tropics and the globe (land and ocean separately, and combined). Over the tropics this calculation leads to a relative error estimate for tropical land and ocean combined of 7%, which is considered to be an upper bound because of the lack of sign-of-the-error canceling when integrating over different areas with a

  4. Children’s 5-HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal criticism and attentional biases specifically for facial displays of anger

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibb, Brandon E.; Johnson, Ashley L.; Benas, Jessica S.; Uhrlass, Dorothy J.; Knopik, Valerie S.; McGeary, John E.

    2011-01-01

    Theorists have proposed that negative experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of experience-specific information-processing biases, including attentional biases. There are also clear genetic influences on cognitive processes, with evidence that polymorphisms in specific candidate genes may moderate the impact of environmental stress on attentional biases (e.g., a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene [5-HTTLPR]). In the current study, we tested a gene × environment (G × E) model of risk for attentional biases. We hypothesized that children whose mothers exhibit high levels of expressed emotion criticism (EE-Crit) would display attentional biases specifically for angry, but not happy or sad, faces, and that this link would be stronger among children carrying one or two copies of the 5-HTTLPR short allele than among those homozygous for the long allele. Results generally supported these hypotheses, though we found that carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele who also had a critical mother exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces rather than preferential attention. PMID:21895572

  5. A study on investors’ personality characteristics and behavioral biases: Conservatism bias and availability bias in the Tehran Stock Exchange

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmoud Moradi

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Most economic and finance theories are based on the assumption that during economic decision making, people would act totally rational and consider all available information. Nevertheless, behavioral finance focuses on studying of the role of psychological factors on economic participants’ behavior. The study shows that in real-world environment, people are influenced by emotional and cognitive errors and may make irrational financial decisions. In many cases, the participants of financial markets are not aware of their talents for error in decision making, so they are dissatisfied with their investments by considering some behavioral biases decisions. These decisions may often yield undesirable outcomes, which could influence economy, significantly. This paper presents a survey on the relationship between personality dimensions with behavioral biases and availability bias among investment managers in the Tehran Stock Exchange using SPSS software, descriptive and inferential statistics. The necessary data are collected through questionnaire and they are analyzed using some statistical tests. The preliminary results indicate that there is a relationship between personality dimensions and behavioral biases like conservatism bias and availability bias among the investors in the Tehran Stock Exchange.

  6. In situ scanning tunnelling microscopy of redox molecules. Coherent electron transfer at large bias voltages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Jingdong; Kuznetsov, A.M.; Ulstrup, Jens

    2003-01-01

    Theories of in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) of molecules with redox levels near the substrate and tip Fermi levels point to 'spectroscopic' current-overpotential features. Prominent features require a narrow 'probing tip', i.e. a small bias voltage, eV(bias), compared...

  7. Target selection biases from recent experience transfer across effectors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moher, Jeff; Song, Joo-Hyun

    2016-02-01

    Target selection is often biased by an observer's recent experiences. However, not much is known about whether these selection biases influence behavior across different effectors. For example, does looking at a red object make it easier to subsequently reach towards another red object? In the current study, we asked observers to find the uniquely colored target object on each trial. Randomly intermixed pre-trial cues indicated the mode of action: either an eye movement or a visually guided reach movement to the target. In Experiment 1, we found that priming of popout, reflected in faster responses following repetition of the target color on consecutive trials, occurred regardless of whether the effector was repeated from the previous trial or not. In Experiment 2, we examined whether an inhibitory selection bias away from a feature could transfer across effectors. While priming of popout reflects both enhancement of the repeated target features and suppression of the repeated distractor features, the distractor previewing effect isolates a purely inhibitory component of target selection in which a previewed color is presented in a homogenous display and subsequently inhibited. Much like priming of popout, intertrial suppression biases in the distractor previewing effect transferred across effectors. Together, these results suggest that biases for target selection driven by recent trial history transfer across effectors. This indicates that representations in memory that bias attention towards or away from specific features are largely independent from their associated actions.

  8. Disruption avoidance in the SINP-Tokamak by means of electrode-biasing at the plasma edge

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Basu, Debjyoti [Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF-Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700064, WB (India); Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares-UNAM, Mexico D.F. 04510 (Mexico); Pal, Rabindranath [Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF-Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700064, WB (India); Martinell, Julio J. [Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares-UNAM, Mexico D.F. 04510 (Mexico); Ghosh, Joydeep; Chattopadhyay, Prabal K. [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar (India)

    2013-05-15

    Control of plasma disruption by a biased edge electrode is reported in SINP-Tokamak. The features that characterize a plasma disruption are reduced with increasing bias potential. The disruption can be completely suppressed with the concomitant stabilization of observed MHD modes that are allegedly precursors of the disruption. An m = 3/n = 1 tearing mode, which apparently causes disruption can be stabilized when a negative biasing potential is applied near the edge. These changes in the disruptive behavior with edge biasing are hypothesized to be due to changes in the current density profile.

  9. Disruption avoidance in the SINP-Tokamak by means of electrode-biasing at the plasma edge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basu, Debjyoti; Pal, Rabindranath; Martinell, Julio J.; Ghosh, Joydeep; Chattopadhyay, Prabal K.

    2013-01-01

    Control of plasma disruption by a biased edge electrode is reported in SINP-Tokamak. The features that characterize a plasma disruption are reduced with increasing bias potential. The disruption can be completely suppressed with the concomitant stabilization of observed MHD modes that are allegedly precursors of the disruption. An m = 3/n = 1 tearing mode, which apparently causes disruption can be stabilized when a negative biasing potential is applied near the edge. These changes in the disruptive behavior with edge biasing are hypothesized to be due to changes in the current density profile

  10. Threat Interference Biases Predict Socially Anxious Behavior: The Role of Inhibitory Control and Minute of Stressor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorlin, Eugenia I; Teachman, Bethany A

    2015-07-01

    The current study brings together two typically distinct lines of research. First, social anxiety is inconsistently associated with behavioral deficits in social performance, and the factors accounting for these deficits remain poorly understood. Second, research on selective processing of threat cues, termed cognitive biases, suggests these biases typically predict negative outcomes, but may sometimes be adaptive, depending on the context. Integrating these research areas, the current study examined whether conscious and/or unconscious threat interference biases (indexed by the unmasked and masked emotional Stroop) can explain unique variance, beyond self-reported anxiety measures, in behavioral avoidance and observer-rated anxious behavior during a public speaking task. Minute of speech and general inhibitory control (indexed by the color-word Stroop) were examined as within-subject and between-subject moderators, respectively. Highly socially anxious participants (N=135) completed the emotional and color-word Stroop blocks prior to completing a 4-minute videotaped speech task, which was later coded for anxious behaviors (e.g., speech dysfluency). Mixed-effects regression analyses revealed that general inhibitory control moderated the relationship between both conscious and unconscious threat interference bias and anxious behavior (though not avoidance), such that lower threat interference predicted higher levels of anxious behavior, but only among those with relatively weaker (versus stronger) inhibitory control. Minute of speech further moderated this relationship for unconscious (but not conscious) social-threat interference, such that lower social-threat interference predicted a steeper increase in anxious behaviors over the course of the speech (but only among those with weaker inhibitory control). Thus, both trait and state differences in inhibitory control resources may influence the behavioral impact of threat biases in social anxiety. Copyright © 2015

  11. Media bias under direct and indirect government control: when is the bias smaller?

    OpenAIRE

    Abhra Roy

    2015-01-01

    We present an analytical framework to compare media bias under direct and indirect government control. In this context, we show that direct control can lead to a smaller bias and higher welfare than indirect control. We further show that the size of the advertising market affects media bias only under direct control. Media bias, under indirect control, is not affected by the size of the advertising market.

  12. Systemic racism moderates effects of provider racial biases on adherence to hypertension treatment for African Americans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greer, Tawanda M; Brondolo, Elizabeth; Brown, Porschia

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the current study was to examine perceived exposure to systemic racism as a moderator of the effects of perceived exposure to provider racial biases on treatment adherence and mistrust of health care for a sample of African American hypertensive patients. We hypothesized that patients who endorsed high levels of systemic racism would exhibit poor adherence to hypertension treatment and increased mistrust in health care in relation to perceptions of exposure to provider racial biases. The sample consisted of 100 African American patients who ranged in age from 24 to 82 years. All were diagnosed with hypertension and were recruited from an outpatient clinic located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Moderated regression analyses were performed to test the study hypotheses. Findings revealed a positive, significant main effect for perceived provider racial biases in predicting mistrust of care. This finding suggested that an increase in mistrust of health care was associated with increased perceptions of provider biases. In predicting treatment adherence, a significant interaction revealed that patients who endorsed low and moderate degrees of exposure to systemic racism displayed poor adherence to treatment in relation to greater perceptions of provider racial biases. The overall findings suggest that patients who perceive themselves as infrequently exposed to systemic racism possess the greatest risk for nonadherence to hypertension treatment in relation to increased perceptions of provider racial biases. Implications of the findings are discussed. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

  13. Bias-dependent hybrid PKI empirical-neural model of microwave FETs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marinković, Zlatica; Pronić-Rančić, Olivera; Marković, Vera

    2011-10-01

    Empirical models of microwave transistors based on an equivalent circuit are valid for only one bias point. Bias-dependent analysis requires repeated extractions of the model parameters for each bias point. In order to make model bias-dependent, a new hybrid empirical-neural model of microwave field-effect transistors is proposed in this article. The model is a combination of an equivalent circuit model including noise developed for one bias point and two prior knowledge input artificial neural networks (PKI ANNs) aimed at introducing bias dependency of scattering (S) and noise parameters, respectively. The prior knowledge of the proposed ANNs involves the values of the S- and noise parameters obtained by the empirical model. The proposed hybrid model is valid in the whole range of bias conditions. Moreover, the proposed model provides better accuracy than the empirical model, which is illustrated by an appropriate modelling example of a pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistor device.

  14. The Time-Saving Bias in a Firm

    OpenAIRE

    Zíka, Vojtěch

    2015-01-01

    The time-saving bias is a cognitive error which systematically influences human perception of relationship between speed and time. As a consequence they overestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from higher speed and underestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from lower speed. This bias is most salient in the context of a car driving where such a misperception might lead to an excessively high travelling speed. Apart from the impact on the driving safety,...

  15. Large-scale galaxy bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desjacques, Vincent; Jeong, Donghui; Schmidt, Fabian

    2018-02-01

    This review presents a comprehensive overview of galaxy bias, that is, the statistical relation between the distribution of galaxies and matter. We focus on large scales where cosmic density fields are quasi-linear. On these scales, the clustering of galaxies can be described by a perturbative bias expansion, and the complicated physics of galaxy formation is absorbed by a finite set of coefficients of the expansion, called bias parameters. The review begins with a detailed derivation of this very important result, which forms the basis of the rigorous perturbative description of galaxy clustering, under the assumptions of General Relativity and Gaussian, adiabatic initial conditions. Key components of the bias expansion are all leading local gravitational observables, which include the matter density but also tidal fields and their time derivatives. We hence expand the definition of local bias to encompass all these contributions. This derivation is followed by a presentation of the peak-background split in its general form, which elucidates the physical meaning of the bias parameters, and a detailed description of the connection between bias parameters and galaxy statistics. We then review the excursion-set formalism and peak theory which provide predictions for the values of the bias parameters. In the remainder of the review, we consider the generalizations of galaxy bias required in the presence of various types of cosmological physics that go beyond pressureless matter with adiabatic, Gaussian initial conditions: primordial non-Gaussianity, massive neutrinos, baryon-CDM isocurvature perturbations, dark energy, and modified gravity. Finally, we discuss how the description of galaxy bias in the galaxies' rest frame is related to clustering statistics measured from the observed angular positions and redshifts in actual galaxy catalogs.

  16. High-current discharge channel contraction in high density gas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rutberg, Ph. G.; Bogomaz, A. A.; Pinchuk, M. E.; Budin, A. V.; Leks, A. G.; Pozubenkov, A. A.

    2011-01-01

    Research results for discharges at current amplitudes of 0.5-1.6 MA and current rise rate of ∼10 10 A/s are presented. The discharge is performed in the hydrogen environment at the initial pressure of 5-35 MPa. Initiation is implemented by a wire explosion. The time length of the first half-period of the discharge current is 70-150 μs. Under such conditions, discharge channel contraction is observed; the contraction is followed by soft x-ray radiation. The phenomena are discussed, which are determined by high density of the gas surrounding the discharge channel. These phenomena are increase of the current critical value, where the channel contraction begins and growth of temperature in the axis region of the channel, where the initial density of the gas increases.

  17. Transit time spreads in biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sise, Omer; Zouros, Theo J.M.

    2016-01-01

    The biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers (HDAs) are an alternative to conventional (centric) HDAs maintaining greater dispersion, lower angular aberrations, and hence better energy resolution without the use of any additional fringing field correctors. In the present work, the transit time spread of the biased paracentric HDA is computed over a wide range of analyzer parameters. The combination of high energy resolution with good time resolution and simplicity of design makes the biased paracentric analyzers very promising for both coincidence and singles spectroscopy applications.

  18. Transit time spreads in biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sise, Omer, E-mail: omersise@sdu.edu.tr [Dept. of Science Education, Faculty of Education, Suleyman Demirel Univ., 32260 Isparta (Turkey); Zouros, Theo J.M. [Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, GR 71003 Heraklion (Greece); Tandem Lab, INPP, NCSR Demokritos, P.O. Box 60228, GR 15310 Ag. Paraskevi (Greece)

    2016-02-15

    The biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers (HDAs) are an alternative to conventional (centric) HDAs maintaining greater dispersion, lower angular aberrations, and hence better energy resolution without the use of any additional fringing field correctors. In the present work, the transit time spread of the biased paracentric HDA is computed over a wide range of analyzer parameters. The combination of high energy resolution with good time resolution and simplicity of design makes the biased paracentric analyzers very promising for both coincidence and singles spectroscopy applications.

  19. Transit time spreads in biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sise, Omer; Zouros, Theo J. M.

    2016-02-01

    The biased paracentric hemispherical deflection analyzers (HDAs) are an alternative to conventional (centric) HDAs maintaining greater dispersion, lower angular aberrations, and hence better energy resolution without the use of any additional fringing field correctors. In the present work, the transit time spread of the biased paracentric HDA is computed over a wide range of analyzer parameters. The combination of high energy resolution with good time resolution and simplicity of design makes the biased paracentric analyzers very promising for both coincidence and singles spectroscopy applications.

  20. Seasonal and circadian biases in bird tracking with solar GPS-tags.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafa Silva

    Full Text Available Global Positioning System (GPS tags are nowadays widely used in wildlife tracking. This geolocation technique can suffer from fix loss biases due to poor satellite GPS geometry, that result in tracking data gaps leading to wrong research conclusions. In addition, new solar-powered GPS tags deployed on birds can suffer from a new "battery drain bias" currently ignored in movement ecology analyses. We use a GPS tracking dataset of bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus, tracked for several years with solar GPS tags, to evaluate the causes and triggers of fix and data retrieval loss biases. We compare two models of solar GPS tags using different data retrieval systems (Argos vs GSM-GPRS, and programmed with different duty cycles. Neither of the models was able to accomplish the duty cycle programed initially. Fix and data retrieval loss rates were always greater than expected, and showed non-random gaps in GPS locations. Number of fixes per month of tracking was a bad criterion to identify tags with smaller biases. Fix-loss rates were four times higher due to battery drain than due to poor GPS satellite geometry. Both tag models were biased due to the uneven solar energy available for the recharge of the tag throughout the annual cycle, resulting in greater fix-loss rates in winter compared to summer. In addition, we suggest that the bias found along the diurnal cycle is linked to a complex three-factor interaction of bird flight behavior, topography and fix interval. More fixes were lost when vultures were perching compared to flying, in rugged versus flat topography. But long fix-intervals caused greater loss of fixes in dynamic (flying versus static situations (perching. To conclude, we emphasize the importance of evaluating fix-loss bias in current tracking projects, and deploying GPS tags that allow remote duty cycle updates so that the most appropriate fix and data retrieval intervals can be selected.

  1. Automated importance generation and biasing techniques for Monte Carlo shielding techniques by the TRIPOLI-3 code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Both, J.P.; Nimal, J.C.; Vergnaud, T.

    1990-01-01

    We discuss an automated biasing procedure for generating the parameters necessary to achieve efficient Monte Carlo biasing shielding calculations. The biasing techniques considered here are exponential transform and collision biasing deriving from the concept of the biased game based on the importance function. We use a simple model of the importance function with exponential attenuation as the distance to the detector increases. This importance function is generated on a three-dimensional mesh including geometry and with graph theory algorithms. This scheme is currently being implemented in the third version of the neutron and gamma ray transport code TRIPOLI-3. (author)

  2. Seasonal and circadian biases in bird tracking with solar GPS-tags

    OpenAIRE

    Silva, Rafa; Afán, Isabel; Gil, Juan A.; Bustamante, Javier

    2017-01-01

    Global Positioning System (GPS) tags are nowadays widely used in wildlife tracking. This geolocation technique can suffer from fix loss biases due to poor satellite GPS geometry, that result in tracking data gaps leading to wrong research conclusions. In addition, new solar-powered GPS tags deployed on birds can suffer from a new "battery drain bias" currently ignored in movement ecology analyses. We use a GPS tracking dataset of bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus), tracked for several years...

  3. Correcting Biases in a lower resolution global circulation model with data assimilation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canter, Martin; Barth, Alexander

    2016-04-01

    With this work, we aim at developping a new method of bias correction using data assimilation. This method is based on the stochastic forcing of a model to correct bias. First, through a preliminary run, we estimate the bias of the model and its possible sources. Then, we establish a forcing term which is directly added inside the model's equations. We create an ensemble of runs and consider the forcing term as a control variable during the assimilation of observations. We then use this analysed forcing term to correct the bias of the model. Since the forcing is added inside the model, it acts as a source term, unlike external forcings such as wind. This procedure has been developed and successfully tested with a twin experiment on a Lorenz 95 model. It is currently being applied and tested on the sea ice ocean NEMO LIM model, which is used in the PredAntar project. NEMO LIM is a global and low resolution (2 degrees) coupled model (hydrodynamic model and sea ice model) with long time steps allowing simulations over several decades. Due to its low resolution, the model is subject to bias in area where strong currents are present. We aim at correcting this bias by using perturbed current fields from higher resolution models and randomly generated perturbations. The random perturbations need to be constrained in order to respect the physical properties of the ocean, and not create unwanted phenomena. To construct those random perturbations, we first create a random field with the Diva tool (Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis). Using a cost function, this tool penalizes abrupt variations in the field, while using a custom correlation length. It also decouples disconnected areas based on topography. Then, we filter the field to smoothen it and remove small scale variations. We use this field as a random stream function, and take its derivatives to get zonal and meridional velocity fields. We also constrain the stream function along the coasts in order not to have

  4. Edge biasing in the WEGA stellarator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lischtschenko, Oliver

    2009-01-01

    The WEGA stellarator is used to confine low temperature, overdense (densities exceeding the cut-off density of the heating wave) plasmas by magnetic fields in the range of B=50-500 mT. Microwave heating systems are used to ignite gas discharges using hydrogen, helium, neon or argon as working gases. The produced plasmas have been analyzed using Langmuir and emissive probes, a single-channel interferometer and ultra-high resolution Doppler spectroscopy. For a typical argon discharge in the low field operation, B=56 mT, the maximum electron density is n e ∝10 18 m -3 with temperatures in the range of T=4-12 eV. The plasma parameters are determined by using Langmuir probes and are cross-checked with interferometry. It is demonstrated within this work that the joint use of emissive probes and ultra-high resolution Doppler spectroscopy allows a precise measurement of the radial electric field. The focus of this work is on demonstrating the ability to modify the existing radial electric field in a plasma by using the biasing probe. This work commences with a basic approach and first establishes the diagnostic tools in a well-known discharge. Then the perturbation caused by the biasing probe is assessed. Following the characterization of the unperturbed plasmas, plasma states altered by the operation of the energized biasing probe are characterized. During biasing the plasma two different stable plasma states have been found. The two observed plasma states differ in plasma parameter profiles, such as density, temperature, electric field and confined energy. (orig.)

  5. Compact high-current, subnanosecond electron accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shpak, V G; Shunajlov, S A; Ulmaskulov, M R; Yalandin, M I [Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation). Inst. of Electrophysics; Pegel, I V [Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk (Russian Federation). High-Current Electronics Inst.; Tarakanov, V P [Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation). High-Temperature Inst.

    1997-12-31

    A compact subnanosecond, high-current electron accelerator producing an annular electron beam of duration up to 300 - 400 ps, energy about 250 keV, and current up to 1 kA has been developed to study transient processes in pulsed power microwave devices. The measuring and recording techniques used to experimentally investigate the dynamics of the beam current pulse and the transformation of the electron energy during the transportation of the beam in a longitudinal magnetic field are described. The experimental data obtained are compared with the predictions of a numerical simulation. (author). 6 figs., 5 refs.

  6. Large-scale galaxy bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeong, Donghui; Desjacques, Vincent; Schmidt, Fabian

    2018-01-01

    Here, we briefly introduce the key results of the recent review (arXiv:1611.09787), whose abstract is as following. This review presents a comprehensive overview of galaxy bias, that is, the statistical relation between the distribution of galaxies and matter. We focus on large scales where cosmic density fields are quasi-linear. On these scales, the clustering of galaxies can be described by a perturbative bias expansion, and the complicated physics of galaxy formation is absorbed by a finite set of coefficients of the expansion, called bias parameters. The review begins with a detailed derivation of this very important result, which forms the basis of the rigorous perturbative description of galaxy clustering, under the assumptions of General Relativity and Gaussian, adiabatic initial conditions. Key components of the bias expansion are all leading local gravitational observables, which include the matter density but also tidal fields and their time derivatives. We hence expand the definition of local bias to encompass all these contributions. This derivation is followed by a presentation of the peak-background split in its general form, which elucidates the physical meaning of the bias parameters, and a detailed description of the connection between bias parameters and galaxy (or halo) statistics. We then review the excursion set formalism and peak theory which provide predictions for the values of the bias parameters. In the remainder of the review, we consider the generalizations of galaxy bias required in the presence of various types of cosmological physics that go beyond pressureless matter with adiabatic, Gaussian initial conditions: primordial non-Gaussianity, massive neutrinos, baryon-CDM isocurvature perturbations, dark energy, and modified gravity. Finally, we discuss how the description of galaxy bias in the galaxies' rest frame is related to clustering statistics measured from the observed angular positions and redshifts in actual galaxy catalogs.

  7. Development of a high current ion implanter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Byung Ho; Kim, Wan; Jin, Jeong Tae

    1990-01-01

    A high current ion implanter of the energy of 100 Kev and the current of about 100 mA has been developed for using the high dose ion implantation, surface modification of steels and ceramics, and ion beam milling. The characteristics of the beam extraction and transportation are investigated. A duoPIGatron ion source compatible with gas ion extraction of about 100 mA, a single gap acceleration tube which is able to compensate the divergence due to the space charge effect, and a beam transport system with the concept of the space charge neutralization are developed for the high current machine. The performance of the constructed machine shows that nitrogen, argon, helium, hydrogen and oxygen ion beams are successfully extracted and transported at a beam divergence due to space charge effect is negligible in the operation pressure of 2 x 10 -5 torr. (author)

  8. Visual search attentional bias modification reduced social phobia in adolescents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Voogd, E.L.; Wiers, R.W.; Prins, P.J.M.; Salemink, E.

    2014-01-01

    Background and objectives: An attentional bias for negative information plays an important role in the development and maintenance of (social) anxiety and depression, which are highly prevalent in adolescence. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) might be an interesting tool in the prevention of

  9. Application of Photocurrent Model on Polymer Solar Cells Under Forward Bias Stress

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rizzo, Antonio; Torto, Lorenzo; Wrachien, Nicola

    2017-01-01

    We performed a constant current stress at forward bias on organic heterojunction solar cells. We measured current voltage curves in both dark and light at each stress step to calculate the photocurrent. An existing model applied to photocurrent experimental data allows the estimation of several...

  10. Stable superconducting magnet. [high current levels below critical temperature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boom, R. W. (Inventor)

    1967-01-01

    Operation of a superconducting magnet is considered. A method is described for; (1) obtaining a relatively high current in a superconducting magnet positioned in a bath of a gas refrigerant; (2) operating a superconducting magnet at a relatively high current level without training; and (3) operating a superconducting magnet containing a plurality of turns of a niobium zirconium wire at a relatively high current level without training.

  11. A high current, high speed pulser using avalanche transistors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosono, Yoneichi; Hasegawa, Ken-ichi

    1985-01-01

    A high current, high speed pulser for the beam pulsing of a linear accelerator is described. It uses seven avalanche transistors in cascade. Design of a trigger circuit to obtain fast rise time is discussed. The characteristics of the pulser are : (a) Rise time = 0.9 ns (FWHM) and (d) Life time asymptotically equals 2000 -- 3000 hr (at 50 Hz). (author)

  12. Super conducting fault current limiter and inductor design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogers, J.; Boenig, H.; Chowdhuri, P.; Schermer, R.; Weldon, D.; Wollan, J.

    1983-01-01

    A superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) that uses a biased superconducting inductor in a diode or thyristor bridge circuit was analyzed for transmission systems in 69, 138, and 230 rms kV utility transmission systems. The limiter was evaluated for costs with all components--superconducting coil, diode and/or SCR power electronics, high voltage insulation, high voltage bushings and vapor cooled leads, dewar, and refrigerator--included. A design was undertaken for the superconducting cable and coils for both diode and SCR 69 kV limiter circuits

  13. Bias and Causation Models and Judgment for Valid Comparisons

    CERN Document Server

    Weisberg, Herbert I

    2010-01-01

    A one-of-a-kind resource on identifying and dealing with bias in statistical research on causal effects. Do cell phones cause cancer? Can a new curriculum increase student achievement? Determining what the real causes of such problems are, and how powerful their effects may be, are central issues in research across various fields of study. Some researchers are highly skeptical of drawing causal conclusions except in tightly controlled randomized experiments, while others discount the threats posed by different sources of bias, even in less rigorous observational studies. Bias and Causation pre

  14. Information environment, behavioral biases, and home bias in analysts’ recommendations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Farooq, Omar; Taouss, Mohammed

    2012-01-01

    Can information environment of a firm explain home bias in analysts’ recommendations? Can the extent of agency problems explain optimism difference between foreign and local analysts? This paper answers these questions by documenting the effect of information environment on home bias in analysts’...

  15. Spatial Bias in Field-Estimated Unsaturated Hydraulic Properties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    HOLT,ROBERT M.; WILSON,JOHN L.; GLASS JR.,ROBERT J.

    2000-12-21

    Hydraulic property measurements often rely on non-linear inversion models whose errors vary between samples. In non-linear physical measurement systems, bias can be directly quantified and removed using calibration standards. In hydrologic systems, field calibration is often infeasible and bias must be quantified indirectly. We use a Monte Carlo error analysis to indirectly quantify spatial bias in the saturated hydraulic conductivity, K{sub s}, and the exponential relative permeability parameter, {alpha}, estimated using a tension infiltrometer. Two types of observation error are considered, along with one inversion-model error resulting from poor contact between the instrument and the medium. Estimates of spatial statistics, including the mean, variance, and variogram-model parameters, show significant bias across a parameter space representative of poorly- to well-sorted silty sand to very coarse sand. When only observation errors are present, spatial statistics for both parameters are best estimated in materials with high hydraulic conductivity, like very coarse sand. When simple contact errors are included, the nature of the bias changes dramatically. Spatial statistics are poorly estimated, even in highly conductive materials. Conditions that permit accurate estimation of the statistics for one of the parameters prevent accurate estimation for the other; accurate regions for the two parameters do not overlap in parameter space. False cross-correlation between estimated parameters is created because estimates of K{sub s} also depend on estimates of {alpha} and both parameters are estimated from the same data.

  16. Parenting Practices, Interpretive Biases, and Anxiety in Latino Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varela, R. Enrique; Niditch, Laura A.; Hensley-Maloney, Lauren; Moore, Kathryn W.; Creveling, C. Christiane

    2013-01-01

    A number of factors are believed to confer risk for anxiety development in children; however, cultural variation of purported risk factors remains unclear. We examined relations between controlling and rejecting parenting styles, parental modeling of anxious behaviors, child interpretive biases, and child anxiety in a mixed clinically anxious (n = 27) and non-clinical (n = 20) sample of Latino children and at least one of their parents. Families completed discussion-based tasks and questionnaires in a lab setting. Results indicated that child anxiety was: linked with parental control and child interpretative biases; associated with parental modeling of anxious behaviors at a trend level; and not associated with low parental acceptance. Findings that controlling parenting and child interpretive biases were associated with anxiety extend current theories of anxiety development to the Latino population. We speculate that strong family ties may buffer Latino children from detrimental effects of perceived low parental acceptance. PMID:23434545

  17. Radiation-induced off-state leakage current in commercial power MOSFETs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dodd, Paul Emerson; Shaneyfelt, Marty Ray; Draper, Bruce Leroy; Felix, James Andrew; Schwank, James Ralph; Dalton, Scott Matthew

    2005-01-01

    The total dose hardness of several commercial power MOSFET technologies is examined. After exposure to 20 krad(SiO 2 ) most of the n- and p-channel devices examined in this work show substantial (2 to 6 orders of magnitude) increases in off-state leakage current. For the n-channel devices, the increase in radiation-induced leakage current follows standard behavior for moderately thick gate oxides, i.e., the increase in leakage current is dominated by large negative threshold voltage shifts, which cause the transistor to be partially on even when no bias is applied to the gate electrode. N-channel devices biased during irradiation show a significantly larger leakage current increase than grounded devices. The increase in leakage current for the p-channel devices, however, was unexpected. For the p-channel devices, it is shown using electrical characterization and simulation that the radiation-induced leakage current increase is related to an increase in the reverse bias leakage characteristics of the gated diode which is formed by the drain epitaxial layer and the body. This mechanism does not significantly contribute to radiation-induced leakage current in typical p-channel MOS transistors. The p-channel leakage current increase is nearly identical for both biased and grounded irradiations and therefore has serious implications for long duration missions since even devices which are usually powered off could show significant degradation and potentially fail.

  18. Empirical single sample quantification of bias and variance in Q-ball imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hainline, Allison E; Nath, Vishwesh; Parvathaneni, Prasanna; Blaber, Justin A; Schilling, Kurt G; Anderson, Adam W; Kang, Hakmook; Landman, Bennett A

    2018-02-06

    The bias and variance of high angular resolution diffusion imaging methods have not been thoroughly explored in the literature and may benefit from the simulation extrapolation (SIMEX) and bootstrap techniques to estimate bias and variance of high angular resolution diffusion imaging metrics. The SIMEX approach is well established in the statistics literature and uses simulation of increasingly noisy data to extrapolate back to a hypothetical case with no noise. The bias of calculated metrics can then be computed by subtracting the SIMEX estimate from the original pointwise measurement. The SIMEX technique has been studied in the context of diffusion imaging to accurately capture the bias in fractional anisotropy measurements in DTI. Herein, we extend the application of SIMEX and bootstrap approaches to characterize bias and variance in metrics obtained from a Q-ball imaging reconstruction of high angular resolution diffusion imaging data. The results demonstrate that SIMEX and bootstrap approaches provide consistent estimates of the bias and variance of generalized fractional anisotropy, respectively. The RMSE for the generalized fractional anisotropy estimates shows a 7% decrease in white matter and an 8% decrease in gray matter when compared with the observed generalized fractional anisotropy estimates. On average, the bootstrap technique results in SD estimates that are approximately 97% of the true variation in white matter, and 86% in gray matter. Both SIMEX and bootstrap methods are flexible, estimate population characteristics based on single scans, and may be extended for bias and variance estimation on a variety of high angular resolution diffusion imaging metrics. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  19. Size Reduction of a DC Link Choke Using Saturation Gap and Biasing with Permanent Magnets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aguilar, Andres Revilla; Munk-Nielsen, Stig; Zuccherato, Marco

    2014-01-01

    This document describes the design procedure of permanent magnet biased DC inductors using the Saturation-gap technique [1]. This biasing configuration can provide a 50% reduction in either the core volume or the number of turns, while meeting its current and inductance requirements. A design exa...

  20. An experimental study of spider-related covariation bias in 8-to 13-year-old children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Muris, Peter; de Jong, Peter J.; Meesters, Cor; Waterreus, Bregje; van Lubeck, Janet

    2005-01-01

    Covariation bias can be defined as phobic subjects' tendency to overestimate the association between phobic stimuli and aversive outcomes. The current study presents two experiments that examined this type of cognitive bias in children aged 8-13 years (N = 147 in Experiment 1, N = 240 in Experiment

  1. TCABR Tokamak scrape-off layer turbulence with DC biasing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heller, M.V.A.P.; Ferreira, A.A.; Caldas, I.L.; Nascimento, I.C.

    2004-01-01

    Turbulence and particle transport in plasma scrape-off layer have been controlled by external electric fields. This control can be achieved by a biasing electrode located inside the plasma. We investigate plasma turbulence changes in the scrape-off layer of TCABR tokamak introduced by DC biasing an electrode inside the plasma. Our investigation is based on the alterations observed on the wavelet power spectra and on the intermittent burst sequences of plasma potential and density fluctuations measured by a set of Langmuir probes. Biasing the electrode changes the turbulence statistics and the bursts intermittence. With the imposed external electric field, fluctuation amplitudes, phase velocities, and anomalous particle transport are modified. Transport reduction for higher frequencies induced by the biasing could be due to the strong de-phasing between density and potential fluctuations. The mode coupling increases with the perturbation for the high frequency broadband fluctuations. The total (laminar and bursting) radial particle transport is reduced by about 25% by DC biasing. Bursts contribution to total transport is 15% and for the studied conditions this contribution does not change much with the bias perturbation

  2. Electrophysiology of blunted emotional bias in psychopathic personality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carolan, Patrick L; Jaspers-Fayer, Fern; Asmaro, Deyar T; Douglas, Kevin S; Liotti, Mario

    2014-01-01

    Diminished emotional capacity is a core characteristic of psychopathic personality. We examined behavioral and electrophysiological differences in attentional bias to emotional material in 34 healthy individuals rated high or low in psychopathic traits using the short form of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (18 high-trait, 16 low-trait). While performing an emotional Stroop task, high-trait participants displayed reduced emotional modulation of the late positive potential (LPP, 400-600 ms), and early anterior positivity (EAP, 200-300 ms) amplitudes. Results suggest blunted bias to affective content in psychopathic personality, characterized by diminished early capture to emotional salience (EAP) and dampened cognitive emotional processing (LPP). Copyright © 2013 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  3. How and how much does RAD-seq bias genetic diversity estimates?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cariou, Marie; Duret, Laurent; Charlat, Sylvain

    2016-11-08

    RAD-seq is a powerful tool, increasingly used in population genomics. However, earlier studies have raised red flags regarding possible biases associated with this technique. In particular, polymorphism on restriction sites results in preferential sampling of closely related haplotypes, so that RAD data tends to underestimate genetic diversity. Here we (1) clarify the theoretical basis of this bias, highlighting the potential confounding effects of population structure and selection, (2) confront predictions to real data from in silico digestion of full genomes and (3) provide a proof of concept toward an ABC-based correction of the RAD-seq bias. Under a neutral and panmictic model, we confirm the previously established relationship between the true polymorphism and its RAD-based estimation, showing a more pronounced bias when polymorphism is high. Using more elaborate models, we show that selection, resulting in heterogeneous levels of polymorphism along the genome, exacerbates the bias and leads to a more pronounced underestimation. On the contrary, spatial genetic structure tends to reduce the bias. We confront the neutral and panmictic model to "ideal" empirical data (in silico RAD-sequencing) using full genomes from natural populations of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the fungus Shizophyllum commune, harbouring respectively moderate and high genetic diversity. In D. melanogaster, predictions fit the model, but the small difference between the true and RAD polymorphism makes this comparison insensitive to deviations from the model. In the highly polymorphic fungus, the model captures a large part of the bias but makes inaccurate predictions. Accordingly, ABC corrections based on this model improve the estimations, albeit with some imprecisions. The RAD-seq underestimation of genetic diversity associated with polymorphism in restriction sites becomes more pronounced when polymorphism is high. In practice, this means that in many systems where

  4. I2 basal stacking fault as a degradation mechanism in reverse gate-biased AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang, A. C.; Hart, J. L.; Wen, J. G.; Miller, D. J.; Meyer, D. J.; Taheri, M. L.

    2016-09-01

    Here, we present the observation of a bias-induced, degradation-enhancing defect process in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy grown reverse gate-biased AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), which is compatible with the current theoretical framework of HEMT degradation. Specifically, we utilize both conventional transmission electron microscopy and aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy to analyze microstructural changes in not only high strained regions in degraded AlGaN/GaN HEMTs but also the extended gate-drain access region. We find a complex defect structure containing an I2 basal stacking fault and offer a potential mechanism for device degradation based on this defect structure. This work supports the reality of multiple failure mechanisms during device operation and identifies a defect potentially involved with device degradation.

  5. The electric field at hole injecting metal/organic interfaces as a cause for manifestation of exponential bias-dependent mobility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cvikl, B.

    2014-01-01

    It is shown that the well-known empirical exponential bias-dependent mobility is an approximation function of the relevant term emerging in the Mott–Gurney space charge limited current model when the constant non-zero electric field at the hole injecting metal/organic interface E int is taken into account. The term in question is the product of the bias-independent (but organic layer thickness-dependent) effective mobility coefficient and the algebraic function, f(λ), of the argument λ = E int /E a , where E a is the externally applied electric field. On account of the non-zero interfacial field, E int , the singularity of the spatial dependence of the hole current density, p(x), is removed. The resulting hole drift current density, j, is tested as a function of E a against a number of published room temperature hole current j–E a data sets, all characterized by good ohmic contact at the hole injecting interface. It is shown that the calculated current density provides a very good fit to the measurements within a high range of E a intervals. Low values of E a , are investigated analytically under the assumption of hole drift-diffusion. The extremely large internal electric fields at the anode/organic junction indicate drift-diffusion to be an improbable process for the structures investigated. However, a description of hole transport throughout the whole interval of experimental E a values may be obtained at low values of E a by an extended Mark–Helfrich drift model with traps occupying the exponentially distributed energy levels, followed by the extended Mott–Gurney model description within the remaining part of the E a interval. In both models the same (bias-independent) effective mobility coefficient is incorporated into the calculations. The results present evidence that within the framework of the extended Mott–Gurney expression the properly derived term should replace the empirical exponential bias-dependent mobility, making it redundant in the

  6. Preparation of TiN films by arc ion plating using dc and pulsed biases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, M.D.; Lee, Y.P.; Dong, C.; Lin, G.Q.; Sun, C.; Wen, L.S.

    2004-01-01

    TiN hard coatings were prepared by arc ion plating with both direct current (dc) and pulsed biases. An extensive investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of the substrate temperature on the mechanical properties and the microstructures of films. The results show that the substrate temperature is decreased evidently when a pulsed bias instead of a dc one is employed. At the same time, the microstructures and the properties are also improved. A low-temperature arc ion plating can be realized by using pulsed biases

  7. Transmission Level High Temperature Superconducting Fault Current Limiter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stewart, Gary [SuperPower, Inc., Schenectady, NY (United States)

    2016-10-05

    The primary objective of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of utilizing high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials in a Transmission Level Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) application. During the project, the type of high-temperature superconducting material used evolved from 1st generation (1G) BSCCO-2212 melt cast bulk high-temperature superconductors to 2nd generation (2G) YBCO-based high-temperature superconducting tape. The SFCL employed SuperPower's “Matrix” technology, that offers modular features to enable scale up to transmission voltage levels. The SFCL consists of individual modules that contain elements and parallel inductors that assist in carrying the current during the fault. A number of these modules are arranged in an m x n array to form the current-limiting matrix.

  8. Analysis of tag-position bias in MPSS technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rattray Magnus

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS technology was recently developed as a high-throughput technology for measuring the concentration of mRNA transcripts in a sample. It has previously been observed that the position of the signature tag in a transcript (distance from 3' end can affect the measurement, but this effect has not been studied in detail. Results We quantify the effect of tag-position bias in Classic and Signature MPSS technology using published data from Arabidopsis, rice and human. We investigate the relationship between measured concentration and tag-position using nonlinear regression methods. The observed relationship is shown to be broadly consistent across different data sets. We find that there exist different and significant biases in both Classic and Signature MPSS data. For Classic MPSS data, genes with tag-position in the middle-range have highest measured abundance on average while genes with tag-position in the high-range, far from the 3' end, show a significant decrease. For Signature MPSS data, high-range tag-position genes tend to have a flatter relationship between tag-position and measured abundance. Thus, our results confirm that the Signature MPSS method fixes a substantial problem with the Classic MPSS method. For both Classic and Signature MPSS data there is a positive correlation between measured abundance and tag-position for low-range tag-position genes. Compared with the effects of mRNA length and number of exons, tag-position bias seems to be more significant in Arabadopsis. The tag-position bias is reflected both in the measured abundance of genes with a significant tag count and in the proportion of unexpressed genes identified. Conclusion Tag-position bias should be taken into consideration when measuring mRNA transcript abundance using MPSS technology, both in Classic and Signature MPSS methods.

  9. Design and Performance of a Pinned Photodiode CMOS Image Sensor Using Reverse Substrate Bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefanov, Konstantin D; Clarke, Andrew S; Ivory, James; Holland, Andrew D

    2018-01-03

    A new pinned photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensor with reverse biased p-type substrate has been developed and characterized. The sensor uses traditional PPDs with one additional deep implantation step to suppress the parasitic reverse currents, and can be fully depleted. The first prototypes have been manufactured on an 18 µm thick, 1000 Ω·cm epitaxial silicon wafers using 180 nm PPD image sensor process. Both front-side illuminated (FSI) and back-side illuminated (BSI) devices were manufactured in collaboration with Teledyne e2v. The characterization results from a number of arrays of 10 µm and 5.4 µm PPD pixels, with different shape, the size and the depth of the new implant are in good agreement with device simulations. The new pixels could be reverse-biased without parasitic leakage currents well beyond full depletion, and demonstrate nearly identical optical response to the reference non-modified pixels. The observed excessive charge sharing in some pixel variants is shown to not be a limiting factor in operation. This development promises to realize monolithic PPD CIS with large depleted thickness and correspondingly high quantum efficiency at near-infrared and soft X-ray wavelengths.

  10. High current transistor pulse generator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nesterov, V.; Cassel, R.

    1991-05-01

    A solid state pulse generator capable of delivering high current trapezoidally shaped pulses into an inductive load has been developed at SLAC. Energy stored in the capacitor bank of the pulse generator is switched to the load through a pair of Darlington transistors. A combination of diodes and Darlington transistors is used to obtain trapezoidal or triangular shaped current pulses into an inductive load and to recover the remaining energy in the same capacitor bank without reversing capacitor voltage. The transistors work in the switch mode, and the power losses are low. The rack mounted pulse generators presently used at SLAC contain a 660 microfarad storage capacitor bank and can deliver 400 amps at 800 volts into inductive loads up to 3 mH. The pulse generators are used in several different power systems, including pulse to pulse bipolar power supplies and in application with current pulses distributed into different inductive loads. The current amplitude and discharge time are controlled by the central computer system through a specially developed multichannel controller. Several years of operation with the pulse generators have proven their consistent performance and reliability. 8 figs

  11. Political Ideology and Perceptions of Bias Among University Faculty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan Bullers

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available The goal of the study was to examine the political ideology and perceptions of bias among the faculty in a university in the southeast U.S.A. Findings regarding the overall dominance of a liberal political ideology as well as ideological differences among disciplines are consistent with previous research. Respondents did distinguish between political dominance and political bias and were relatively accurate in their perceptions of a liberal dominance. Reports of bias were much lower overall but all groups were more likely to report a bias against conservatives than against Liberal and Moderates. Reports of bias against conservatives were quite high among conservatives themselves (48.7%. Conservatives were more likely to report a need to conceal their political beliefs, while Moderates and Liberals were slightly more likely to report harassment or attacks for their political beliefs. The gender differences in political ideology show that women are significantly more likely to hold a liberal political ideology.

  12. Biased lineup instructions and face identification from video images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, W Burt; Johnson, Jaime

    2008-01-01

    Previous eyewitness memory research has shown that biased lineup instructions reduce identification accuracy, primarily by increasing false-positive identifications in target-absent lineups. Because some attempts at identification do not rely on a witness's memory of the perpetrator but instead involve matching photos to images on surveillance video, the authors investigated the effects of biased instructions on identification accuracy in a matching task. In Experiment 1, biased instructions did not affect the overall accuracy of participants who used video images as an identification aid, but nearly all correct decisions occurred with target-present photo spreads. Both biased and unbiased instructions resulted in high false-positive rates. In Experiment 2, which focused on video-photo matching accuracy with target-absent photo spreads, unbiased instructions led to more correct responses (i.e., fewer false positives). These findings suggest that investigators should not relax precautions against biased instructions when people attempt to match photos to an unfamiliar person recorded on video.

  13. Current-induced dynamics in carbon atomic contacts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lu, Jing Tao; Gunst, Tue; Brandbyge, Mads

    2011-01-01

    voltage, which can be used to explore current-induced vibrational instabilities due the NC/BP forces. Furthermore, using tight-binding and the Brenner potential we illustrate how Langevin-type molecular-dynamics calculations including the Joule heating effect for the carbon-chain systems can be performed...... be used to explore current-induced dynamics and instabilities. We find instabilities at experimentally relevant bias and gate voltages for the carbon-chain system. © 2011 Lü et al....... carbon chain connecting electrically gated graphene electrodes. This illustrates how the device stability can be predicted solely from the modes obtained from the Langevin equation, including the current-induced forces. We point out that the gate offers control of the current, independent of the bias...

  14. Hydrological modeling as an evaluation tool of EURO-CORDEX climate projections and bias correction methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakala, Kirsti; Addor, Nans; Seibert, Jan

    2017-04-01

    Streamflow stemming from Switzerland's mountainous landscape will be influenced by climate change, which will pose significant challenges to the water management and policy sector. In climate change impact research, the determination of future streamflow is impeded by different sources of uncertainty, which propagate through the model chain. In this research, we explicitly considered the following sources of uncertainty: (1) climate models, (2) downscaling of the climate projections to the catchment scale, (3) bias correction method and (4) parameterization of the hydrological model. We utilize climate projections at the 0.11 degree 12.5 km resolution from the EURO-CORDEX project, which are the most recent climate projections for the European domain. EURO-CORDEX is comprised of regional climate model (RCM) simulations, which have been downscaled from global climate models (GCMs) from the CMIP5 archive, using both dynamical and statistical techniques. Uncertainties are explored by applying a modeling chain involving 14 GCM-RCMs to ten Swiss catchments. We utilize the rainfall-runoff model HBV Light, which has been widely used in operational hydrological forecasting. The Lindström measure, a combination of model efficiency and volume error, was used as an objective function to calibrate HBV Light. Ten best sets of parameters are then achieved by calibrating using the genetic algorithm and Powell optimization (GAP) method. The GAP optimization method is based on the evolution of parameter sets, which works by selecting and recombining high performing parameter sets with each other. Once HBV is calibrated, we then perform a quantitative comparison of the influence of biases inherited from climate model simulations to the biases stemming from the hydrological model. The evaluation is conducted over two time periods: i) 1980-2009 to characterize the simulation realism under the current climate and ii) 2070-2099 to identify the magnitude of the projected change of

  15. Lattice Effects Due to High Currents in PEP-II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Decker, F.-J.; Smith, H.; Turner, J.L.; SLAC

    2005-01-01

    The very high beam currents in the PEP-II B-Factory have caused many expected and unexpected effects: Synchrotron light fans move the beam pipe and cause dispersion; higher order modes cause excessive heating, e-clouds around the positron beam blow up its beam size. Here we describe an effect where the measured dispersion of the beam in the Low Energy Ring (LER) is different at high and at low beam currents. The dispersion was iteratively lowered by making anti-symmetric orbit bumps in many sextupole duplets, checking each time with a dispersion measurement where a dispersive kick is generated. This can be done parasitically during collisions. It was a surprise when checking the low current characterization data that there is a change. Subsequent high and low current measurements confirmed the effect. One source was believed to be located far away from any synchrotron radiation in the middle of a straight (PR12), away from sextupoles and skew quadrupoles and created a dispersion wave of about 70 mm at high current while at low current it is negligible

  16. Bias temperature instability in tunnel field-effect transistors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizubayashi, Wataru; Mori, Takahiro; Fukuda, Koichi; Ishikawa, Yuki; Morita, Yukinori; Migita, Shinji; Ota, Hiroyuki; Liu, Yongxun; O'uchi, Shinichi; Tsukada, Junichi; Yamauchi, Hiromi; Matsukawa, Takashi; Masahara, Meishoku; Endo, Kazuhiko

    2017-04-01

    We systematically investigated the bias temperature instability (BTI) of tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs). The positive BTI and negative BTI mechanisms in TFETs are the same as those in metal-oxide-semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs). In TFETs, although traps are generated in high-k gate dielectrics by the bias stress and/or the interface state is degraded at the interfacial layer/channel interface, the threshold voltage (V th) shift due to BTI degradation is caused by the traps and/or the degradation of the interface state locating the band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) region near the source/gate edge. The BTI lifetime in n- and p-type TFETs is improved by applying a drain bias corresponding to the operation conditions.

  17. Current transport mechanisms in mercury cadmium telluride diode

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gopal, Vishnu, E-mail: vishnu-46@yahoo.com, E-mail: wdhu@mail.sitp.ac.cn [Institute of Defence Scientists and Technologists, CFEES Complex, Brig. S. K. Majumdar Marg, Delhi 110054 (India); Li, Qing; He, Jiale; Hu, Weida, E-mail: vishnu-46@yahoo.com, E-mail: wdhu@mail.sitp.ac.cn [National Lab for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200083 (China); He, Kai; Lin, Chun [Key Laboratory of Infrared Imaging Materials and Detectors, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200083 (China)

    2016-08-28

    This paper reports the results of modelling of the current-voltage characteristics (I-V) of a planar mid-wave Mercury Cadmium Telluride photodiode in a gate controlled diode experiment. It is reported that the diode exhibits nearly ideal I-V characteristics under the optimum surface potential leading to the minimal surface leakage current. Deviations from the optimum surface potential lead to non ideal I–V characteristics, indicating a strong relationship between the ideality factor of the diode with its surface leakage current. Diode's I–V characteristics have been modelled over a range of gate voltages from −9 V to −2 V. This range of gate voltages includes accumulation, flat band, and depletion and inversion conditions below the gate structure of the diode. It is shown that the I–V characteristics of the diode can be very well described by (i) thermal diffusion current, (ii) ohmic shunt current, (iii) photo-current due to background illumination, and (iv) excess current that grows by the process of avalanche multiplication in the gate voltage range from −3 V to −5 V that corresponds to the optimum surface potential. Outside the optimum gate voltage range, the origin of the excess current of the diode is associated with its high surface leakage currents. It is reported that the ohmic shunt current model applies to small surface leakage currents. The higher surface leakage currents exhibit a nonlinear shunt behaviour. It is also shown that the observed zero-bias dynamic resistance of the diode over the entire gate voltage range is the sum of ohmic shunt resistance and estimated zero-bias dynamic resistance of the diode from its thermal saturation current.

  18. Bond and Equity Home Bias and Foreign Bias: an International Study

    OpenAIRE

    VanPée, Rosanne; De Moor, Lieven

    2012-01-01

    In this paper we explore tentatively and formally the differences between bond and equity home bias and foreign bias based on one large scale dataset including developed and emerging markets for the period 2001 to 2010. We set the stage by tentatively and formally linking the diversion of bond and equity home bias in OECD countries to the increasing public debt issues under the form of government bonds i.e. the supply-driven argument. Unlike Fidora et al. (2007) we do not find that exchange r...

  19. LASL high-current proton storage rings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lawrence, G.P.; Cooper, R.K.; Hudgings, D.W.; Spalek, G.; Jason, A.J.; Higgins, E.F.; Gillis, R.E.

    1980-01-01

    The Proton Storage Ring at LAMPF is a high-current accumulator designed to convert long 800-MeV linac pulses into very short high-intensity proton bunches ideally suited to driving a pulsed polyenergetic neutron source. The Ring, authorized for construction at $19 million, will operate in a short-bunch high-frequency mode for fast neutron physics and a long-bunch low-frequency mode for thermal neutron-scattering programs. Unique features of the project include charge-changing injection with initial conversion from H - to H 0 , a high repetition rate fast-risetime extraction kicker, and high-frequency and first-harmonic bunching system

  20. Measurement of Minimum Bias Observables with the ATLAS detector

    CERN Document Server

    Kvita, Jiri; The ATLAS collaboration

    2017-01-01

    The modelling of Minimum Bias (MB) is a crucial ingredient to learn about the description of soft QCD processes. It has also a significant relevance for the simulation of the environment at the LHC with many concurrent pp interactions (“pileup”). The ATLAS collaboration has provided new measurements of the inclusive charged particle multiplicity and its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity in special data sets with low LHC beam currents, recorded at center of mass energies of 8 TeV and 13 TeV. The measurements cover a wide spectrum using charged particle selections with minimum transverse momentum of both 100 MeV and 500 MeV and in various phase space regions of low and high charged particle multiplicities.

  1. High resolution eddy current microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lantz, M. A.; Jarvis, S. P.; Tokumoto, H.

    2001-01-01

    We describe a sensitive scanning force microscope based technique for measuring local variations in resistivity by monitoring changes in the eddy current induced damping of a cantilever with a magnetic tip oscillating above a conducting sample. To achieve a high sensitivity, we used a cantilever with an FeNdBLa particle mounted on the tip. Resistivity measurements are demonstrated on a silicon test structure with a staircase doping profile. Regions with resistivities of 0.0013, 0.0041, and 0.022 Ω cm are clearly resolved with a lateral resolution of approximately 180 nm. For this range of resistivities, the eddy current induced damping is found to depend linearly on the sample resistivity.

  2. Surface ionization ion source with high current

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang Jinqing; Lin Zhizhou; Yu Lihua; Zhan Rongan; Huang Guojun; Wu Jianhua

    1986-04-01

    The working principle and structure of a surface ionization ion source with high current is described systematically. Some technological keypoints of the ion source are given in more detail, mainly including: choosing and shaping of the material of the surface ionizer, heating of the ionizer, distributing of working vapour on the ionizer surface, the flow control, the cooling problem at the non-ionization surface and the ion optics, etc. This ion source has been used since 1972 in the electromagnetic isotope separator with 180 deg angle. It is suitable for separating isotopes of alkali metals and rare earth metals. For instance, in the case of separating Rubidium, the maximum ion current of Rbsup(+) extracted from the ion source is about 120 mA, the maximum ion current accepted by the receiver is about 66 mA, the average ion current is more than 25 mA. The results show that our ion source have advantages of high ion current, good characteristics of focusing ion beam, working stability and structure reliability etc. It may be extended to other fields. Finally, some interesting phenomena in the experiment are disccused briefly. Some problems which should be investigated are further pointed out

  3. Parenting practices, interpretive biases, and anxiety in Latino children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varela, R Enrique; Niditch, Laura A; Hensley-Maloney, Lauren; Moore, Kathryn W; Creveling, C Christiane

    2013-03-01

    A number of factors are believed to confer risk for anxiety development in children; however, cultural variation of purported risk factors remains unclear. We examined relations between controlling and rejecting parenting styles, parental modeling of anxious behaviors, child interpretive biases, and child anxiety in a mixed clinically anxious (n=27) and non-clinical (n=20) sample of Latino children and at least one of their parents. Families completed discussion-based tasks and questionnaires in a lab setting. Results indicated that child anxiety was: linked with parental control and child interpretative biases, associated with parental modeling of anxious behaviors at a trend level, and not associated with low parental acceptance. Findings that controlling parenting and child interpretive biases were associated with anxiety extend current theories of anxiety development to the Latino population. We speculate that strong family ties may buffer Latino children from detrimental effects of perceived low parental acceptance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Optimization of magnetoresistive sensor current for on-chip magnetic bead detection using the sensor self-field

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henriksen, Anders Dahl; Rizzi, Giovanni; Østerberg, Frederik Westergaard

    2015-01-01

    We investigate the self-heating of magnetoresistive sensors used for measurements on magnetic beads in magnetic biosensors. The signal from magnetic beads magnetized by the field due to the sensor bias current is proportional to the bias current squared. Therefore, we aim to maximize the bias...... current while limiting the sensor self-heating. We systematically characterize and model the Joule heating of magnetoresistive sensors with different sensor geometries and stack compositions. The sensor heating is determined using the increase of the sensor resistance as function of the bias current......, thus the heat conductance is proportional to the sensor area and inversely proportional to the oxide thickness. This simple heat conductance determines the relationship between bias current and sensor temperature, and we show that View the MathML source25μm wide sensor on a View the MathML source1μm...

  5. The Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials in General Dentistry Journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinton, Stephanie; Beyari, Mohammed M; Madden, Kim; Lamfon, Hanadi A

    2015-01-01

    The use of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) research design is considered the gold standard for conducting evidence-based clinical research. In this present study, we aimed to assess the quality of RCTs in dentistry and create a general foundation for evidence-based dentistry on which to perform subsequent RCTs. We conducted a systematic assessment of bias of RCTs in seven general dentistry journals published between January 2011 and March 2012. We extracted study characteristics in duplicate and assessed each trial's quality using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. We compared risk of bias across studies graphically. Among 1,755 studies across seven journals, we identified 67 RCTs. Many included studies were conducted in Europe (39%), with an average sample size of 358 participants. These studies included 52% female participants and the maximum follow-up period was 13 years. Overall, we found a high percentage of unclear risk of bias among included RCTs, indicating poor quality of reporting within the included studies. An overall high proportion of trials with an "unclear risk of bias" suggests the need for better quality of reporting in dentistry. As such, key concepts in dental research and future trials should focus on high-quality reporting.

  6. Critical current enhancement in high Tc superconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin, S.; Graebner, J.E.; Tiefel, T.H.

    1990-01-01

    Progress toward major technological applications of the bulk, high T c superconductors has been hindered by two major barriers, i.e., the Josephson weak-links at grain boundaries and the lack of sufficient intragrain flux pinning. It has been demonstrated that the weak link problem can be overcome by extreme alignment of grains such as in melt-textured-growth (MTG) materials. Modified or improved processing by various laboratories has produced further increased critical currents. However, the insufficient flux pinning seems to limit the critical current density in high fields to about 10 4 --10 5 A/cm 2 at 77K, which is not satisfactory for many applications. In this paper, processing, microstructure, and critical current behavior of the MTG type superconductors are described, and various processing possibilities for flux pinning enhancement are discussed

  7. Implicit Racial Biases in Preschool Children and Adults from Asia and Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Miao K.; Heyman, Gail D.; Quinn, Paul C.; Messi, Francoise A.; Fu, Genyue; Lee, Kang

    2016-01-01

    This research used an Implicit Racial Bias Test to investigate implicit racial biases among 3- to 5-year-olds and adult participants in China (N = 213) and Cameroon (N = 257). In both cultures, participants displayed high levels of racial biases that remained stable between 3 and 5 years of age. Unlike adults, young children's implicit racial…

  8. Current-induced forces: a new mechanism to induce negative differential resistance and current-switching effect in molecular junctions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Lei; Fu, Hua-Hua

    2015-12-01

    Current-induced forces can excite molecules, polymers and other low-dimensional materials, which in turn leads to an effective gate voltage through Holstein interaction. Here, by taking a short asymmetric DNA junction as an example, and using the Langevin approach, we find that when suppression of charge transport by the effective gate voltage surpasses the current increase from an elevated voltage bias, the current-voltage (I-V) curves display strong negative differential resistance (NDR) and perfect current-switching characteristics. The asymmetric DNA chain differs in mechanical stability under inverse voltages and the I-V curve is asymmetric about inverse biases, which can be used to understand recent transport experiments on DNA chains, and meanwhile provides a new strategy to realize NDR in molecular junctions and other low-dimensional quantum systems.

  9. Current-induced forces: a new mechanism to induce negative differential resistance and current-switching effect in molecular junctions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu, Lei; Fu, Hua-Hua

    2015-01-01

    Current-induced forces can excite molecules, polymers and other low-dimensional materials, which in turn leads to an effective gate voltage through Holstein interaction. Here, by taking a short asymmetric DNA junction as an example, and using the Langevin approach, we find that when suppression of charge transport by the effective gate voltage surpasses the current increase from an elevated voltage bias, the current-voltage (I–V) curves display strong negative differential resistance (NDR) and perfect current-switching characteristics. The asymmetric DNA chain differs in mechanical stability under inverse voltages and the I–V curve is asymmetric about inverse biases, which can be used to understand recent transport experiments on DNA chains, and meanwhile provides a new strategy to realize NDR in molecular junctions and other low-dimensional quantum systems. (paper)

  10. Demonstration of zero bias responsivity in MBE grown β-Ga2O3 lateral deep-UV photodetector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh Pratiyush, Anamika; Krishnamoorthy, Sriram; Kumar, Sandeep; Xia, Zhanbo; Muralidharan, Rangarajan; Rajan, Siddharth; Nath, Digbijoy N.

    2018-06-01

    We demonstrate zero-bias spectral responsivity in MBE-grown β-Ga2O3 planar UV-C detector with good linearity up to optical power density of 4.6 mW cm‑2. Devices with asymmetrical metal contacts were realized on 150 nm thick β-Ga2O3 films on sapphire. The device exhibited a spectral responsivity of 1.4 mA W‑1 at 255 nm under zero-bias condition, dark current UV-to-visible rejection ratio ∼105 at 5 V. The demonstrated UV-C detector exhibited an estimated high detectivity of 2.0 × 1012 Jones at 1 V and were found to be very stable and repeatable, suggesting its potential use for focal plane arrays.

  11. Time-course of attention biases in social phobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schofield, Casey A; Inhoff, Albrecht W; Coles, Meredith E

    2013-10-01

    Theoretical models of social phobia implicate preferential attention to social threat in the maintenance of anxiety symptoms, though there has been limited work characterizing the nature of these biases over time. The current study utilized eye-movement data to examine the time-course of visual attention over 1500ms trials of a probe detection task. Nineteen participants with a primary diagnosis of social phobia based on DSM-IV criteria and 20 non-clinical controls completed this task with angry, fearful, and happy face trials. Overt visual attention to the emotional and neutral faces was measured in 50ms segments across the trial. Over time, participants with social phobia attend less to emotional faces and specifically less to happy faces compared to controls. Further, attention to emotional relative to neutral expressions did not vary notably by emotion for participants with social phobia, but control participants showed a pattern after 1000ms in which over time they preferentially attended to happy expressions and avoided negative expressions. Findings highlight the importance of considering attention biases to positive stimuli as well as the pattern of attention between groups. These results suggest that attention "bias" in social phobia may be driven by a relative lack of the biases seen in non-anxious participants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Noise Induces Biased Estimation of the Correction Gain.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jooeun Ahn

    Full Text Available The detection of an error in the motor output and the correction in the next movement are critical components of any form of motor learning. Accordingly, a variety of iterative learning models have assumed that a fraction of the error is adjusted in the next trial. This critical fraction, the correction gain, learning rate, or feedback gain, has been frequently estimated via least-square regression of the obtained data set. Such data contain not only the inevitable noise from motor execution, but also noise from measurement. It is generally assumed that this noise averages out with large data sets and does not affect the parameter estimation. This study demonstrates that this is not the case and that in the presence of noise the conventional estimate of the correction gain has a significant bias, even with the simplest model. Furthermore, this bias does not decrease with increasing length of the data set. This study reveals this limitation of current system identification methods and proposes a new method that overcomes this limitation. We derive an analytical form of the bias from a simple regression method (Yule-Walker and develop an improved identification method. This bias is discussed as one of other examples for how the dynamics of noise can introduce significant distortions in data analysis.

  13. Publication bias in dermatology systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atakpo, Paul; Vassar, Matt

    2016-05-01

    Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in dermatology provide high-level evidence for clinicians and policy makers that influence clinical decision making and treatment guidelines. One methodological problem with systematic reviews is the under representation of unpublished studies. This problem is due in part to publication bias. Omission of statistically non-significant data from meta-analyses may result in overestimation of treatment effect sizes which may lead to clinical consequences. Our goal was to assess whether systematic reviewers in dermatology evaluate and report publication bias. Further, we wanted to conduct our own evaluation of publication bias on meta-analyses that failed to do so. Our study considered systematic reviews and meta-analyses from ten dermatology journals from 2006 to 2016. A PubMed search was conducted, and all full-text articles that met our inclusion criteria were retrieved and coded by the primary author. 293 articles were included in our analysis. Additionally, we formally evaluated publication bias in meta-analyses that failed to do so using trim and fill and cumulative meta-analysis by precision methods. Publication bias was mentioned in 107 articles (36.5%) and was formally evaluated in 64 articles (21.8%). Visual inspection of a funnel plot was the most common method of evaluating publication bias. Publication bias was present in 45 articles (15.3%), not present in 57 articles (19.5%) and not determined in 191 articles (65.2%). Using the trim and fill method, 7 meta-analyses (33.33%) showed evidence of publication bias. Although the trim and fill method only found evidence of publication bias in 7 meta-analyses, the cumulative meta-analysis by precision method found evidence of publication bias in 15 meta-analyses (71.4%). Many of the reviews in our study did not mention or evaluate publication bias. Further, of the 42 articles that stated following PRISMA reporting guidelines, 19 (45.2%) evaluated for publication bias. In

  14. Quantized acoustoelectric current in the presence of large tunneling counterflow

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gloos, K.; Utko, P.; Hansen, Jørn Bindslev

    2004-01-01

    A surface acoustic wave drives an electrical current through a short quantum wire. A second tunneling current is injected by biasing one side of the quantum wire. These two contributions to the total current, which flow in opposite directions, are controlled almost independently by the gate...... and the bias voltage, respectively. We have observed the quantization of the acoustoelectric current at up to ten times larger counterflowing tunneling currents. At large tunneling currents the acoustoelectric current can be strongly suppressed. However, this does not seem to be due to an electrostatic...... interaction between the two currents, but is probably caused by the complex potential landscape in the narrow channel of the quantum wire....

  15. Quantized acoustoelectric current in the presence of large tunneling counterflow

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gloos, K.; Utko, P.; Lindelof, P.E.; Hansen, J. Bindslev

    2004-01-01

    A surface acoustic wave drives an electrical current through a short quantum wire. A second tunneling current is injected by biasing one side of the quantum wire. These two contributions to the total current, which flow in opposite directions, are controlled almost independently by the gate and the bias voltage, respectively. We have observed the quantization of the acoustoelectric current at up to ten times larger counterflowing tunneling currents. At large tunneling currents the acoustoelectric current can be strongly suppressed. However, this does not seem to be due to an electrostatic interaction between the two currents, but is probably caused by the complex potential landscape in the narrow channel of the quantum wire

  16. High current high accuracy IGBT pulse generator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nesterov, V.V.; Donaldson, A.R.

    1995-05-01

    A solid state pulse generator capable of delivering high current triangular or trapezoidal pulses into an inductive load has been developed at SLAC. Energy stored in a capacitor bank of the pulse generator is switched to the load through a pair of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT). The circuit can then recover the remaining energy and transfer it back to the capacitor bank without reversing the capacitor voltage. A third IGBT device is employed to control the initial charge to the capacitor bank, a command charging technique, and to compensate for pulse to pulse power losses. The rack mounted pulse generator contains a 525 μF capacitor bank. It can deliver 500 A at 900V into inductive loads up to 3 mH. The current amplitude and discharge time are controlled to 0.02% accuracy by a precision controller through the SLAC central computer system. This pulse generator drives a series pair of extraction dipoles

  17. Bias Toward Psychodynamic Therapy: Framing the Problem and Working Toward a Solution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plakun, Eric M

    2017-09-01

    Although psychodynamic therapy (PDT) is an evidence-based intervention for a broad spectrum of psychiatric conditions, there is often notable bias in the way PDT is depicted both in the popular media and in the scientific literature. This has contributed to a negative view of PDT, which hampers both patient access to this treatment and researcher access to funding for further research on PDT. The adverse effects of these distortions and biases are detrimental not only to PDT but also to the overall field of psychotherapy, raising questions about its credibility. Here we summarize current evidence for PDT, describe existing biases, and formulate a set of recommendations to foster a more balanced perspective on PDT.

  18. New Pulsed Power Technology for High Current Accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caporaso, G J

    2002-01-01

    Recent advances in solid-state modulators now permit the design of a new class of high current accelerators. These new accelerators will be able to operate in burst mode at frequencies of several MHz with unprecedented flexibility and precision in pulse format. These new modulators can drive accelerators to high average powers that far exceed those of any other technology and can be used to enable precision beam manipulations. New insulator technology combined with novel pulse forming lines and switching may enable the construction of a new type of high gradient, high current accelerator. Recent developments in these areas will be reviewed

  19. Divertor plasma modification by divertor biasing and edge ergodization in JFT-2M

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shoji, T.; Nagashima, K.; Tamai, H.; Ohdachi, S.; Miura, Y.; Ohasa, K.; Maeda, H.; Ohyabu, N.; Leonard, A.W.; Aikawa, H.; Fujita, T.; Hoshino, K.; Kawashima, H.; Matsuda, T.; Maeno, M.; Mori, M.; Ogawa, H.; Shimada, M.; Uehara, K.; Yamauchi, T.

    1995-01-01

    The effects of divertor biasing and edge ergodization on the divertor plasma have been investigated in the JFT-2M tokamak. Experimental results show; (1) The differential divertor biasing can change the in/out asymmetry of the divertor plasma. It especially changes the density on the ion side divertor plasma. The in/out electron pressure difference has a good correlation with the biasing current. (2) The unipolar divertor biasing can change the density profile of divertor plasma. The radial electric field and shear flow are the cause for this change. (3) The electron temperature of the divertor plasma in the H-mode with frequent ELMs induced by edge ergodization is lower than that of usual H-mode. That is due to the enhancement of the radial particle flux by frequent ELMs, ((orig.))

  20. The effects of a novel hostile interpretation bias modification paradigm on hostile interpretations, mood, and aggressive behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    AlMoghrabi, Nouran; Huijding, Jorg; Franken, Ingmar H A

    2018-01-01

    Background and objectives Cognitive theories of aggression propose that biased information processing is causally related to aggression. To test these ideas, the current study investigated the effects of a novel cognitive bias modification paradigm (CBM-I) designed to target interpretations