Time Dependent Saddle Node Bifurcation: Breaking Time and the Point of No Return in a Non-Autonomous Model of Critical Transitions

There is a growing awareness that catastrophic phenomena in biology and medicine can be mathematically represented in terms of saddle-node bifurcations. In particular, the term `tipping', or critical transition has in recent years entered the discourse of the general public in relation to ecology, medicine, and public health. The saddle-node bifurcation and its associated theory of catastrophe as put forth by Thom and Zeeman has seen applications in a wide range of fields including molecular biophysics, mesoscopic physics, and climate science. In this paper, we investigate a simple model of a non-autonomous system with a time-dependent parameter $p(\tau)$ and its corresponding `dynamic' (time-dependent) saddle-node bifurcation by the modern theory of non-autonomous dynamical systems. We show that the actual point of no return for a system undergoing tipping can be significantly delayed in comparison to the {\em breaking time} $\hat{\tau}$ at which the corresponding autonomous system with a time-independent parameter $p_{a}= p(\hat{\tau})$ undergoes a bifurcation. A dimensionless parameter $\alpha=\lambda p_0^3V^{-2}$ is introduced, in which $\lambda$ is the curvature of the autonomous saddle-node bifurcation according to parameter $p(\tau)$, which has an initial value of $p_{0}$ and a constant rate of change $V$. We find that the breaking time $\hat{\tau}$ is always less than the actual point of no return $\tau^*$ after which the critical transition is irreversible; specifically, the relation $\tau^*-\hat{\tau}\simeq 2.338(\lambda V)^{-\frac{1}{3}}$ is analytically obtained. For a system with a small $\lambda V$, there exists a significant window of opportunity $(\hat{\tau},\tau^*)$ during which rapid reversal of the environment can save the system from catastrophe

Correlations of BMI-1 expression and telomerase activity in ovarian cancer tissues

Aim: To investigate the correlation between oncoprotein Bmi-1 and telomerase activity in ovarian cancer tissues. Methods: SP immunohistochemistry was adopted to detect the expression of Bmi-1 protein in tissues of 47 ovarian epithelial cancer cases. Modified telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP, silver staining technique) was used to detect the telomerase activity. Results: While in 80.85% (38/47) of ovarian epithelial cancer cases Bmi-1 protein was overexpressed, 46.81% (22/47) had very strong expression level. Bmi-1 expression levels in ovarian carcinoma tissue differ depending on tissue grade (higher for G3 cancer cases — 93.10% than for grade G2 cases — 61.11%) and the stage of the disease (lower for phase II and phase III cases — 66.67% than for phase IV cases — 92.31%). In ovarian epithelial cancer tissues, 87.23% (41/47) demonstrated positive telomerase activity in contrast to zero activity in normal tissues. Majority (90.24%) of specimens with positive telomerase activity possessed high Bmi-1 expression levels. Spearman correlation analysis indicated that expression of Bmi-1 protein was positively correlated with the elevated telomerase activity. Conclusions: Bmi-1 protein is highly expressed in ovarian epithelial cancer tissues, and its expression level correlates with histological grade and clinical phase of the patients. Elevation of Bmi-1 expression is closely correlated to the increased telomerase activity.Цель: изучить корреляцию между экспрессией протеина Bmi-1 и активностью теломеразы при раке яичника. Методы: подобраны оптимальные условия для SP-иммуногистохимии для выявления экспрессии белка Bmi-1 при эпителиальном раке яичника (n = 47). Для определения активности теломеразы был использован усовершенствованый протокол амплификации теломерных повторов (TRAP, методика окрашивания серебром). Результаты: в 80,85% (38/47) случаев рака яичника была выявлена экспрессия белка Bmi-1, в 46,81% (22/47) случаев – на очень высоком уровне. Уровень экспрессии Bmi-1 зависел от степени дифференцировки опухоли (при G3 экспрессия Bmi-1 (93,10%) была выше, чем при G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- G3 экспрессия 3 экспрессия Bmi-1 (93,10%) была выше, чем при G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- Bmi-1 (93,10%) была выше, чем при G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- -1 (93,10%) была выше, чем при -1 (93,10%) была выше, чем при G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- G2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболе- 2 (61,11%)) и от стадии заболевания (уровень экпрессии ниже в стадиях II и III (66,67%), чем в стадии IV (92,31%)). В тканях эпителиального рака яичника в 87,23% (41/47) случаев выявлена положительная теломеразная активность, в отличие от нулевой активности в нормальных тканях. В большинстве исследованных случаев рака яичника (90,24%) при положительной активности теломеразы был отмечен высокий уровень экспрессии Bmi-1. Корреляционный анализ Спирмана показал, что экспрессия белка Bmi-1 положительно коррелирует с повышенной теломеразной активностью. Выводы: белок Bmi-1 экспрессирован на высоком уровне злокачествен- -1 экспрессирован на высоком уровне злокачествен- -1 экспрессирован на высоком уровне злокачественными клетками эпителиального рака яичника, и экспрессия этого белка коррелирует с гистологической градацией и клинической стадией рака. Увеличение экспрессии Bmi-1 коррелировало с повышенной теломеразной активностью

Dutch Author Recognition Test

Book reading shows large individual variability and correlates with better language ability and more empathy. This makes reading exposure an interesting variable to study. Research in English suggests that an author recognition test is the most reliable objective assessment of reading frequency. In this article, we describe the efforts we made to build and test a Dutch author recognition test (DART for older participants and DART_R for younger participants). Our data show that the test is reliable and valid, both in the Netherlands and in Belgium (split-half reliability over .9 with university students, significant correlations with language abilities) and can be used with a young, non-university population. The test is free to use for research purposes

Effect of tempering temperature on microstructure and properties of 65Mn steel for metallurgical saw blade

The continuous tempering treatment of 65 Mn steel for metallurgical saw blade was carried out in the temperature range of 200-620 °C by means of metallographic observation and mechanical property test. The results show that with the increase of tempering temperature, the strength and hardness of the pattern decrease continuously, and the impact value, section shrinkage and elongation change significantly. The experimental results provide a technical reference for preventing the failure of the saw blade during operation

Effect of tempering temperature on microstructure and properties of 65Mn steel for metallurgical saw blade

The continuous tempering treatment of 65 Mn steel for metallurgical saw blade was carried out in the temperature range of 200-620 °C by means of metallographic observation and mechanical property test. The results show that with the increase of tempering temperature, the strength and hardness of the pattern decrease continuously, and the impact value, section shrinkage and elongation change significantly. The experimental results provide a technical reference for preventing the failure of the saw blade during operation

Light-Front Quantization and AdS/QCD: An Overview

We give an overview of the light-front holographic approach to strongly coupled QCD, whereby a confining gauge theory, quantized on the light front, is mapped to a higher-dimensional anti de Sitter (AdS) space. The framework is guided by the AdS/CFT correspondence incorporating a gravitational background asymptotic to AdS space which encodes the salient properties of QCD, such as the ultraviolet conformal limit at the AdS boundary at $z \to 0$, as well as modifications of the geometry in the large $z$ infrared region to describe confinement and linear Regge behavior. There are two equivalent procedures for deriving the AdS/QCD equations of motion: one can start from the Hamiltonian equation of motion in physical space time by studying the off-shell dynamics of the bound state wavefunctions as a function of the invariant mass of the constituents. To a first semiclassical approximation, where quantum loops and quark masses are not included, this leads to a light-front Hamiltonian equation which describes the bound state dynamics of light hadrons in terms of an invariant impact variable $\zeta$ which measures the separation of the partons within the hadron at equal light-front time. Alternatively, one can start from the gravity side by studying the propagation of hadronic modes in a fixed effective gravitational background. Both approaches are equivalent in the semiclassical approximation. This allows us to identify the holographic variable $z$ in AdS space with the impact variable $\zeta$. Light-front holography thus allows a precise mapping of transition amplitudes from AdS to physical space-time. The internal structure of hadrons is explicitly introduced and the angular momentum of the constituents plays a key role.Comment: Invited talk presented by GdT at the XIV School of Particles and Fields, Morelia, Mexico, November 8-12, 201

A novel five-phase fault-tolerant modular in-wheel permanent-magnet synchronous machine for electric vehicles

© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. This paper describes a five-phase fault-tolerant modular in-wheel permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) for electric vehicles. By adopting both the analytical and finite-element methods, the magnetic isolation abilities of some typical slot/pole combinations are analyzed, and a new fractional-slot concentrated winding topology that features hybrid single/double-layer concentrated windings and modular stator structure is developed. For the proposed hybrid single/double-layer concentrated windings, feasible slot/pole combinations are studied for three-, four-, and five-phase PMSMs. A five-phase in-wheel PMSM that adopts the proposed winding topology is designed and compared with the conventional PMSM, and the proposed machine shows advantages of large output torque, zero mutual inductances, low short-circuit current, and high magnetic isolation ability. Some of the analysis results are verified by experiments

Auto-tracking system for human lumbar motion analysis

Previous lumbar motion analyses suggest the usefulness of quantitatively characterizing spine motion. However, the application of such measurements is still limited by the lack of user-friendly automatic spine motion analysis systems. This paper describes an automatic analysis system to measure lumbar spine disorders that consists of a spine motion guidance device, an X-ray imaging modality to acquire digitized video fluoroscopy (DVF) sequences and an automated tracking module with a graphical user interface (GUI). DVF sequences of the lumbar spine are recorded during flexion-extension under a guidance device. The automatic tracking software utilizing a particle filter locates the vertebra-of-interest in every frame of the sequence, and the tracking result is displayed on the GUI. Kinematic parameters are also extracted from the tracking results for motion analysis. We observed that, in a bone model test, the maximum fiducial error was 3.7%, and the maximum repeatability error in translation and rotation was 1.2% and 2.6%, respectively. In our simulated DVF sequence study, the automatic tracking was not successful when the noise intensity was greater than 0.50. In a noisy situation, the maximal difference was 1.3 mm in translation and 1° in the rotation angle. The errors were calculated in translation (fiducial error: 2.4%, repeatability error: 0.5%) and in the rotation angle (fiducial error: 1.0%, repeatability error: 0.7%). However, the automatic tracking software could successfully track simulated sequences contaminated by noise at a density ≤ 0.5 with very high accuracy, providing good reliability and robustness. A clinical trial with 10 healthy subjects and 2 lumbar spondylolisthesis patients were enrolled in this study. The measurement with auto-tacking of DVF provided some information not seen in the conventional X-ray. The results proposed the potential use of the proposed system for clinical applications. © 2011 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.postprin

Evolution of an eruptive flare loop system

<p><b>Context:</b> Flares, eruptive prominences and coronal mass ejections are phenomena where magnetic reconnection plays an important role. However, the location and the rate of the reconnection, as well as the mechanisms of particle interaction with ambient and chromospheric plasma are still unclear.</p> <p><b>Aims:</b> In order to contribute to the comprehension of the above mentioned processes we studied the evolution of the eruptive flare loop system in an active region where a flare, a prominence eruption and a CME occurred on August 24, 2002.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> We measured the rate of expansion of the flare loop arcade using TRACE 195 Å images and determined the rising velocity and the evolution of the low and high energy hard X-ray sources using RHESSI data. We also fitted HXR spectra and considered the radio emission at 17 and 34 GHZ.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> We observed that the top of the eruptive flare loop system initially rises with a linear behavior and then, after 120 mn from the start of the event registered by GOES at 1–8 Å, it slows down. We also observed that the heating source (low energy X-ray) rises faster than the top of the loops at 195 Å and that the high energy X-ray emission (30–40 keV) changes in time, changing from footpoint emission at the very onset of the flare to being coincident during the flare peak with the whole flare loop arcade.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The evolution of the loop system and of the X-ray sources allowed us to interpret this event in the framework of the Lin & Forbes model (2000), where the absolute rate of reconnection decreases when the current sheet is located at an altitude where the Alfvén speed decreases with height. We estimated that the lower limit for the altitude of the current sheet is km. Moreover, we interpreted the unusual variation of the high energy HXR emission as a manifestation of the non thermal coronal thick-target process which appears during the flare in a manner consistent with the inferred increase in coronal column density.</p&gt