9,424 research outputs found
Isolated output for class-D dc amplifiers
Transformer-coupled output stage is used with pulse-width modulated class-D dc amplifiers. Circuit is comprised of two channels corresponding to negative and positive input signals. Amplitude of secondary-current triangular pulse is function of duration of driving pulse. Therefore, circuit converts pulse-width modulated driving signal to pulse-amplitude modulated signal
An Analysis of Kinetic Response Variability
Studies evaluating variability of force as a function of absolute force generated are synthesized. Inconsistencies in reported estimates of this relationship are viewed as a function of experimental constraints imposed. Typically, within-subject force variability increases at a negative accelerating rate with equal increments in force produced. Current pulse-step and impulse variability models are unable to accommodate this description, although the notion of efficiency is suggested as a useful construct to explain the description outlined
Development of a Computationally Efficient Fabric Model for Optimization of Gripper Trajectories in Automated Composite Draping
An automated prepreg fabric draping system is being developed which consists
of an array of actuated grippers. It has the ability to pick up a fabric ply
and place it onto a double-curved mold surface. A previous research effort
based on a nonlinear Finite Element model showed that the movements of the
grippers should be chosen carefully to avoid misplacement and induce of
wrinkles in the draped configuration. Thus, the present study seeks to develop
a computationally efficient model of the mechanical behavior of a fabric based
on 2D catenaries which can be used for optimization of the gripper
trajectories. The model includes bending stiffness, large deflections, large
ply shear and a simple contact formulation. The model is found to be quick to
evaluate and gives very reasonable predictions of the displacement field
Square Patterns and Quasi-patterns in Weakly Damped Faraday Waves
Pattern formation in parametric surface waves is studied in the limit of weak
viscous dissipation. A set of quasi-potential equations (QPEs) is introduced
that admits a closed representation in terms of surface variables alone. A
multiscale expansion of the QPEs reveals the importance of triad resonant
interactions, and the saturating effect of the driving force leading to a
gradient amplitude equation. Minimization of the associated Lyapunov function
yields standing wave patterns of square symmetry for capillary waves, and
hexagonal patterns and a sequence of quasi-patterns for mixed capillary-gravity
waves. Numerical integration of the QPEs reveals a quasi-pattern of eight-fold
symmetry in the range of parameters predicted by the multiscale expansion.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, 8 figure
Systematic derivation of a rotationally covariant extension of the 2-dimensional Newell-Whitehead-Segel equation
An extension of the Newell-Whitehead-Segel amplitude equation covariant under
abritrary rotations is derived systematically by the renormalization group
method.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letters, March 18, 199
Thermoconvection in magnetized ferrofluids: the influence of boundaries with finite heat conductivity
Realistic boundaries of finite heat conductivity Realistic boundaries of
finite heat conductivity for thermoconvection in a Rayleigh-B\'enard setup with
magnetized ferrofluids are investigated. A linear stability analysis of the
conductive state is performed with a shooting method. It shows that the
critical wave number is for any magnetic field stronly influenced by the
conductivity of the boundaries. Linear as well as nonlinear coefficients of a
Ginzburg Landau amplitude equation for convection shortly above the onset are
evaluated as functions of the magnetic Rayleigh number, the boundary
conductivities, and the fluid Prandtl number.Comment: 10 pages, 9figure
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Cytolethal distending toxin (CDT)-negative Campylobacter jejuni strains and anti-CDT neutralising antibodies induced during human infection but not chicken colonisation
The cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) of Campylobacter jejuni was detectable, using an in vitro assay, in most but not all of 24 strains tested. The reason for the absence of toxin activity in these naturally occurring CDT-negative C. jejuni strains was then investigated at the genetic level. CDT is encoded by three highly conserved genes, cdtA, -B, and -C. In the CDT-negative strains, two types of mutation were identified. The CDT activities of C. jejuni strains possessing both types of mutation were successfully complemented with the functional genes of C. jejuni 11168. The first type of mutation comprised a 667-bp deletion across cdtA and cdtB and considerable degeneration in the remainder of the cdt locus. Using a PCR technique to screen for this deletion, this mutation occurred in fewer than 3% of 147 human, veterinary, and environmental strains tested. The second type of mutation involved at least four nonsynonymous nucleotide changes, but only the replacement of proline with serine at CdtB position 95 was considered important for CDT activity. This was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis. This type of mutation also occurred in fewer than 3% of strains as determined using a LightCycler biprobe assay. The detection of two CDT-negative clinical isolates raised questions about the role of CDT in some cases of human campylobacteriosis. To determine if anti-CDT antibodies are produced in human infection, a toxin neutralization assay was developed and validated using rabbit antisera. Pooled human sera from infected patients neutralized the toxin, indicating expression and immunogenicity during infection. However, no neutralizing antibodies were detected in colonized chickens despite the expression of CDT in the avian gut as indicated by reverse transcription-PCR
Defect Dynamics for Spiral Chaos in Rayleigh-Benard Convection
A theory of the novel spiral chaos state recently observed in Rayleigh-Benard
convection is proposed in terms of the importance of invasive defects i.e
defects that through their intrinsic dynamics expand to take over the system.
The motion of the spiral defects is shown to be dominated by wave vector
frustration, rather than a rotational motion driven by a vertical vorticity
field. This leads to a continuum of spiral frequencies, and a spiral may rotate
in either sense depending on the wave vector of its local environment. Results
of extensive numerical work on equations modelling the convection system
provide some confirmation of these ideas.Comment: Revtex (15 pages) with 4 encoded Postscript figures appende
Multi-Person Pose Estimation with Local Joint-to-Person Associations
Despite of the recent success of neural networks for human pose estimation,
current approaches are limited to pose estimation of a single person and cannot
handle humans in groups or crowds. In this work, we propose a method that
estimates the poses of multiple persons in an image in which a person can be
occluded by another person or might be truncated. To this end, we consider
multi-person pose estimation as a joint-to-person association problem. We
construct a fully connected graph from a set of detected joint candidates in an
image and resolve the joint-to-person association and outlier detection using
integer linear programming. Since solving joint-to-person association jointly
for all persons in an image is an NP-hard problem and even approximations are
expensive, we solve the problem locally for each person. On the challenging
MPII Human Pose Dataset for multiple persons, our approach achieves the
accuracy of a state-of-the-art method, but it is 6,000 to 19,000 times faster.Comment: Accepted to European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) Workshops,
Crowd Understanding, 201
Rapid testing may not improve uptake of HIV testing and same day results in a rural South African community: a cohort study of 12,000 women
<p>Background: Rapid testing of pregnant women aims to increase uptake of HIV testing and results and thus optimize care. We report on the acceptability of HIV counselling and testing, and uptake of results, before and after the introduction of rapid testing in this area.</p>
<p>Methods and Principal Findings: HIV counsellors offered counselling and testing to women attending 8 antenatal clinics, prior to enrolment into a study examining infant feeding and postnatal HIV transmission. From August 2001 to April 2003, blood was sent for HIV ELISA testing in line with the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme in the district. From May 2003 to September 2004 women were offered a rapid HIV test as part of the PMTCT programme, but also continued to have ELISA testing for study purposes. Of 12,323 women counselled, 5,879 attended clinic prior to May 2003, and 6,444 after May 2003 when rapid testing was introduced; of whom 4,324 (74.6%) and 4,810 (74.6%) agreed to have an HIV test respectively. Of the 4,810 women who had a rapid HIV test, only 166 (3.4%) requested to receive their results on the same day as testing, the remainder opted to return for results at a later appointment. Women with secondary school education were less likely to agree to testing than those with no education (AOR 0.648, p<0.001), as were women aged 21–35 (AOR 0.762, p<0.001) and >35 years (AOR 0.756, p<0.01) compared to those <20 years.</p>
<p>Conclusions: Contrary to other reports, few women who had rapid tests accepted their HIV results the same day. Finding strategies to increase the proportion of pregnant women knowing their HIV results is critical so that appropriate care can be given.</p>
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