Equal Intensity Research Articles

Comparative behaviour of solutions and dispersions of amaranth proteins on their emulsifying properties

In the present work the effect of the presence of soluble and insoluble protein on the stability of oil-water emulsions prepared with amaranth protein isolates (API) was analyzed. For this purpose, four types of emulsions were prepared: API-pH2 and API-pH6.3 dispersions and solutions. At pH 2.0 the amaranth proteins present higher solubility, are denatured and partially hydrolyzed; while at pH 6.3 its solubility is lower and its structure is more similar to the native protein. The soluble proteins present in API-pH2 and API-pH6.3 reduce with equal intensity the interfacial tension. However, the proteins present in API-pH2 are adsorbed twice as fast as those present in API-pH6.3, with equal rearrangement rate at the oil/water interface. Both, solutions and dispersions of API-pH2 and API-pH6.3 allow the formation of oil-in-water emulsions. Flocculation phenomena are evident, particularly in the case of API-pH6.3 dispersions. The calculated creaming-flocculation constant demonstrates that stability of emulsions increase with protein concentration and with the decrease of pH. The behaviour of API-pH2 and API-pH6.3 solutions was similar to that corresponding to the dispersions discarding a negative effect of the insoluble protein on the emulsifying properties of amaranth proteins.

Basic principle of population-based cohort study to evaluate influenza vaccine effectiveness among elderly Japanese.

Influenza vaccines minimize the risk of influenza-related morbidity, complication, and death in elderly people. Although evaluating vaccine effectiveness (VE) is important for promoting immunization programs and coping with influenza epidemics, it is difficult to evaluate its effectiveness in Japan, where no frameworks to use large databases, such as a vaccination registry and health maintenance organization datasets, are available. Therefore, another analytic epidemiological investigations to evaluate VE in Japan are required. Herein, we describe the basic principles of a cohort study, which might be the most comprehensive, but expensive, study design. It is particularly important to be aware of the potential bias and confounding factors that should be minimized in the study design and analysis. We focus on "laboratory-confirmed influenza" and "influenza-like illness", and discuss why it is important to follow up with equal intensity, and how to control for bias; problems that often arise in population-based observational cohort studies.

Immediate signaling flexibility in response to experimental noise in urban, but not rural, white‐crowned sparrows

AbstractBackground noise can interfere with acoustic communication. Signal modifications have the potential to increase signal‐to‐noise ratios and reduce the masking effect of noise. Immediate signaling flexibility, a type of vocal plasticity, allows animals to modify their signal to optimize transmission depending on ambient noise conditions. Results from previous studies provide conflicting evidence about whether expression of immediate signaling flexibility is dependent upon the signaler having prior experience with noisy environments. To improve our understanding of vocal plasticity, we examined immediate signaling flexibility in white‐crowned sparrows Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli in urban and rural locations. We experimentally broadcast noise with three different spectral profiles—city (low frequency), inverse of city (high frequency), and white (equal intensity at all frequencies)—successfully to 107 males and measured multiple features of songs produced prior to and during the experiment. We predicted that all males would adjust their song structure during the noise broadcast, but that the extent of plasticity would be greater in noisier territories and the manner of adjustment would depend on the type of experimental noise broadcast. Instead, we found that only urban males exhibit immediate signaling flexibility, through which bandwidth decreases in response to experimental noise. Signal modification did not change with type of noise broadcast or territory background noise. Although songs were less flexible than predicted, the relative reduction in signal bandwidth in urban birds could improve their signal‐to‐noise ratio during the noise broadcast.

Dual comb generation from a mode-locked fiber laser with orthogonally polarized interlaced pulses.

Ultra-high precision dual-comb spectroscopy traditionally requires two mode-locked, fully stabilized lasers with complex feedback electronics. We present a novel mode-locked operation regime in a thulium-holmium co-doped fiber laser, a frequency-halved state with orthogonally polarized interlaced pulses, for dual comb generation from a single source. In a linear fiber laser cavity, an ultrafast pulse train composed of co-generated, equal intensity and orthogonally polarized consecutive pulses at half of the fundamental repetition rate is demonstrated based on vector solitons. Upon optical interference of the orthogonally polarized pulse trains, two stable microwave RF beat combs are formed, effectively down-converting the optical properties into the microwave regime. These co-generated, dual polarization interlaced pulse trains, from one all-fiber laser configuration with common mode suppression, thus provide an attractive compact source for dual-comb spectroscopy, optical metrology and polarization entanglement measurements.

Color-Shift Keying—How Its Largest Obtainable “Minimum Distance” Depends on Its Preset Operating Chromaticity and Constellation Size

Color-shift keying (CSK) is a type of visible light wireless communication, where a visible color is preset and is to appear constant during the human vision's “critical flicker fusion threshold” and “critical color fusion threshold.” This paper is first in the open literature to systematically investigate how CSK's largest achievable “minimum distance” ( $d_{\min }$ ) would vary with the preset chromaticity and with the constellation size ( $M$ ). This paper discovers this elegant approximation: The best $d_{\min } \approx 1.921M^{-0.5985} - 2.736M^{-0.645} (\tilde{x}^2 + \tilde{y}^2)^{0.7802(\log _{2}M)^{-0.436} }$ , where $(\tilde{x}, \tilde{y})$ refers to the preset chromaticity's displacement (in a two-dimensional space) from the case of all LEDs emitting with an equal intensity.

Random Lasing at Localization Transition in a Colloidal Suspension (TiO2@Silica).

Anderson localization of light and random lasing in this critical regime is an open research frontier, which besides being a basic research topic could also lead to important applications. This article investigates the random laser action at the localization transition in a strongly disordered scattering medium composed of a colloidal suspension of core–shell nanoparticles (TiO2@Silica) in ethanol solution of Rhodamine 6G. The classical superfluorescence band of the random laser was measured separately by collecting the emission at the back of the samples, showing a linear dependence with pumping fluence without gain depletion. However, frontal collection showed saturation of the absorption and emission. Narrow peaks of approximately equal intensity are observed on top of the classical superfluorescence band, indicating suppression of the interaction between the peaks modes. The linewidth of these peaks is lower than that of the passive modes of the scattering medium. A method called fraction of absorbed pumping allowed us to infer that this peak’s mode (localized modes) is confined to a shallow region near the input-pumping border.

Female iridescent colour ornamentation in a butterfly that displays mutual ornamentation: is it a sexual signal?

In species wherein males display elaborate sexually selected traits or ornaments, conspecific females may also express these traits in full or partial form. This is called mutual ornamentation, and the co-occurrence of such traits in males and females remains poorly understood. In many sulphur butterflies (subfamily Coliadinae), males have a brilliant ultraviolet (UV) iridescence on their dorsal wing surfaces that functions as a sexual signal in courtship. In some of these sulphurs, such as the large grass yellow, Eurema hecabe, females also display dorsal iridescent patches, albeit smaller, restricted to the forewings and less bright than the male's, but the reasons for its occurrence in females are unknown. Here we present a study testing two functional hypotheses for the female UV-reflecting patch: an antiharassment hypothesis and a male mate choice hypothesis. The daily activity pattern of this species suggests that males are most likely to harass or choose among females from midday on. Observations made at this time of day on the characteristics of females related to male courtship duration suggest that males may preferentially court females with a large UV patch. Experiments with colour-manipulated models also suggest that males court with equal intensity females with and without a basal UV patch. Taken altogether the results provide no support for the antiharassment hypothesis. Because support for the male mate choice hypothesis was relatively weak and because of the limited potential for selection on female coloration due to male choice in these butterflies, the nonfunctional sexual correlation hypothesis remains a viable explanation for the female ornament.

Optical fiber grating vibration sensor for vibration monitoring of hydraulic pump

In view of the existing electrical vibration monitoring traditional hydraulic pump vibration sensor, the high false alarm rate is susceptible to electromagnetic interference and is not easy to achieve long-term reliable monitoring, based on the design of a beam of the uniform strength structure of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) vibration sensor. In this paper, based on the analysis of the vibration theory of the equal strength beam, the principle of FBG vibration tuning based on the equal intensity beam is derived. According to the practical application of the project, the structural dimensions of the equal strength beam are determined, and the optimization design of the vibrator is carried out. The finite element analysis of the sensor is carried out by ANSYS, and the first order resonant frequency is 94.739 Hz. The vibration test of the sensor is carried out by using the vibration frequency of 35 Hz and the vibration source of 50 Hz. The time domain and frequency domain analysis results of test data show that the sensor has good dynamic response characteristics, which can realize the accurate monitoring of the vibration frequency and meet the special requirements of vibration monitoring of hydraulic pump under specific environment.

New energy estimates of extensive air showers using signals detected at great distances from the shower axis

On the basis of detailed tables of signals from Yakutsk extensive air shower scintillation detectors that were calculated using the GEANT4 package, the numerical evaluation of the energy E θ of inclined extensive air showers has been obtained using a pilot signal at a distance of 1000 m from the shower axis and the known zenith angle θ using the CORSIKA package. This original estimate was obtained without using the method of cutting the signal spectra according to lines of equal intensity. We also obtained the values of practical units of measure for signals in ground-based and underground detectors.

Blue-green InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode with mesh-like top metal electrode

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with blue-green dual-wavelength emission and top metal electrode patterned as a mesh were fabricated using InGaN/GaN material system and tested. In pulsed voltage supply mode an increase in injected current resulted in electroluminescence (EL) with equal peak intensities of blue and green emission lines and shallow trough between them. These features of the LED EL-spectrum can be attributed to the effect of the mesh-like patterning of the top electrode.Meshed electrode promotes the injection of current spatially nonuniform along the planes of the quantum well (QWs) which results not only in spatial nonuniformity of the intensity of generated light but also may contribute to position-dependent compensation of Quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) resulting in blue shift of EL in the QWs. The observed phenomenon can be used to control or engineer the EL spectra of dual-wavelength LEDs by electrode patterning.

Interaction of Acetonitrile with Alcohols at Cryogenic Temperatures

Temperature-dependent interaction of acetonitrile with methanol and ethanol, as codeposited and sequentially deposited films, was studied in the 10–130 K window, in ultra high vacuum. Films in the range of 50–100 monolayers were investigated using temperature-dependent reflection–absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), Cs+ ion scattering mass spectrometry, and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Acetonitrile interacts with methanol and ethanol through intermolecular hydrogen bonding. When a codeposited system was annealed, acetonitrile underwent a phase segregation at 110 K, and large changes in the infrared spectrum were observed. The OH stretching of methanol gave two peaks characteristic of the change to the α-phase of methanol, while ethanol gave three peaks at the same temperature. The surface composition of the systems probed by 40 eV Cs+ scattering showed that both the alcohols and the acetonitrile were of equal intensity below 110 K, while above 110 K the intensity of the latter went down s...

Localization of interacting Fermi gases in quasiperiodic potentials

We investigate the zero-temperature metal-insulator transition in a one-dimensional two-component Fermi gas in the presence of a quasi-periodic potential resulting from the superposition of two optical lattices of equal intensity but incommensurate periods. A mobility edge separating (low energy) Anderson localized and (high energy) extended single-particle states appears in this continuous-space model beyond a critical intensity of the quasi-periodic potential. In order to discern the metallic phase from the insulating phase in the interacting many-fermion system, we employ unbiased quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations combined with the many-particle localization length familiar from the modern theory of the insulating state. In the noninteracting limit, the critical optical-lattice intensity for the metal-insulator transition predicted by the QMC simulations coincides with the Anderson localization transition of the single-particle eigenstates. We show that weak repulsive interactions induce a shift of this critical point towards larger intensities, meaning that repulsion favors metallic behavior. This shift appears to be linear in the interaction parameter, suggesting that even infinitesimal interactions can affect the position of the critical point.

Study on FT-MIR spectra of ghee (anhydrous milk fat)

PurposeGhee, anhydrous milk fat, is chemically highly complex in nature. The authentication and characterization of edible fats and oils by routine chemical methods are highly laborious and time consuming. Fourier transform-mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy has emerged as a predominant analytical tool in the study of edible fats/oils. However, sufficient attention has not been paid so far to spectral characterization of milk fat obtained from cow and buffalo milk. The purpose of this paper is to fill this void.Design/methodology/approachGhee samples were prepared from cow and buffalo milk by the direct cream method. From each type of milk (cow and buffalo), 35 samples of ghee were prepared; thus, in total, 70 samples of ghee were obtained for the study. For assigning absorption bands in the IR spectrum, spectra of cow and buffalo ghee samples were acquired in the MIR region (4,000-650 cm−1).FindingsIn FT-MIR spectra of ghee, 14 peaks were obtained at different positions and with varying intensities. They were at 3,005, 2,922, 2,853, 1,744, 1,466, 1,418, 1,377, 1,236, 1,161, 1,114, 1,098, 966, 870 and 721 cm−1 for cow and buffalo ghee with almost equal intensity of absorption.Practical implicationsThe finding of this study will be useful for characterization and authentication of ghee.Originality/valueApplication of IR spectral bands of ghee in the MIR region using a FT-infrared spectrometer to monitor the quality of ghee is suggested.

Principles and simulation of spectropolarimetirc imaging technique based on static dual intensity-modulated Fourier transform

Traditional imaging spectropolarimetry generally requires slit, moving parts, electrically tunable devices, or the use of micropolarized arrays. Furthermore, the acquired raw data are a physical superposition of interferogram and image. Given their complicated structure, poor seismic capacity, low detection sensitivity, and heavy computations with approximation in spectral reconstruction, meeting the needs for applications in aviation, remote sensing, and field detection is difficult. To overcome these drawbacks, a new spectropolarimetric imaging technique based on static dual intensity-modulated Fourier transform is presented. The system consists of a front telescopic system, two phase retarders, a linear polarizer, a Wollaston prism, a Savart polariscope, a linear analyzer, a reimaging system, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) array detector. The incident light is modulated through a module of polarization spectrum modulation, which consists of the retarders and the polarizer. The Wollaston prism splits the modulated incident light into two equal intensities, orthogonally polarized components with a small divergent angle. After passing through the interference module, which is composed of the Savart polariscope and the analyzer, then the reimaging system, two full-polarization interferograms, which are the superposition of background images and interference fringes, are recorded simultaneously on a single CCD. The pure target image and the pure interference fringes can be simply achieved from the summation or the difference of the two interferograms. Spectral and complete polarization information can be acquired by using the Fourier transform of the pure interference fringes. The principle and the configuration of the system are described here in this paper. The reconstruction processes of the target image and the full Stokes polarization spectra are theoretically analyzed and mathematically simulated. The results show that the system can availably separate background image from interference fringes of the target, achieving high-precision spectral reconstruction and effective extraction of the complete polarization information. Compared with the features of existing instruments, one of the salient features of the described model is to use the dual-intensity modulation, which can avoid mutual interference between the image and the fringes from the hardware and is conducive to the extraction of pure interference fringes with high signal-tonoise ratio (SNR). With this feature, the inadequacies on traditional spectral reconstruction, such as large computation, heavy data processing, and low accuracy of acquired information, are overcome. Moreover, the entrance slit in the front telescopic system is removed, which greatly increases the transmittance and flux of the incident light and improves the SNR of the interferogram. The modified Savart polariscope is used in the interference module. Its transverse shearsplitting principle further enlarges the field of view and increases the spectral resolution of the straight fringes. Thus, this design has the advantages of good stability, high spectrum, high sensitivity, large SNR, high-precision information reconstruction, and low-complexity data processing, as well as simultaneous detection of image, spectrum, and complete polarization information. This work will provide an important theoretical basis and practical instruction for developing new spectropolarimetric imaging technique and its engineering applications.

Interpreting Dose-Response Relation for Exposure to Multiple Sound Impulses in the Framework of Immunity

Hearing loss is a common military health problem and it is closely related to exposures to impulse noises from blast explosions and weapon firings. In a study based on test data of chinchillas and scaled to humans (Military Medicine, 181: 59-69), an empirical injury model was constructed for exposure to multiple sound impulses of equal intensity. Building upon the empirical injury model, we conduct a mathematical study of the hearing loss injury caused by multiple impulses of non-uniform intensities. We adopt the theoretical framework of viewing individual sound exposures as separate injury causing events, and in that framework, we examine synergy for causing injury (fatigue) or negative synergy (immunity) or independence among a sequence of doses. Starting with the empirical logistic dose-response relation and the empirical dose combination rule, we show that for causing injury, a sequence of sound exposure events are not independent of each other. The phenomenological effect of a preceding event on the subsequent event is always immunity. We extend the empirical dose combination rule, which is applicable only in the case of homogeneous impulses of equal intensity, to accommodate the general case of multiple heterogeneous sound exposures with non-uniform intensities. In addition to studying and extending the empirical dose combination rule, we also explore the dose combination rule for the hypothetical case of independent events, and compare it with the empirical one. We measure the effect of immunity quantitatively using the immunity factor defined as the percentage of decrease in injury probability attributed to the sound exposure in the preceding event. Our main findings on the immunity factor are: 1) the immunity factor is primarily a function of the difference in SELA (A- weighted sound exposure level) between the two sound exposure events; it is virtually independent of the magnitude of the two SELA values as long as the difference is fixed; 2) the immunity factor increases monotonically from 0 to 100% as the first dose is varied from being significantly below the second dose, to being moderately above the second dose. The extended dose-response formulation developed in this study provides a theoretical framework for assessing the injury risk in realistic situations.

Clinical analysis of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes in children

Objective To investigate the clinical, imaging, pathological and molecular biological features of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes(MELAS) in children. Methods The clinical, imaging, pathological and molecular biological features of 12 children with MELAS diagnosed through muscle biopsy or gene sequencing in the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2011 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Results (1) Clinical features: the main manifestations included headache and vomiting in 11 cases, epileptic seizures in 9 cases, short stature in 8 cases, hairy in 7 cases, intolerance fatigue in 7 cases, cognitive decline in 7 cases, visual disturbance in 6 cases, hearing disturbance in 6 cases, and 5 cases had positive family history.In addition, 7 cases had the serum lactic acid level increase in a rest for 10 min after exercise.(2) Imaging features: 4 cases showed bilateral basal ganglia calcification symmetry in 8 patients who underwent head CT scan.The most frequently involved parts of the lesion were occipital in 10 cases, temporal in 9 cases and parietal lobe in 7 cases in stroke-like episodes.The lesions were lamellar necrosis.The abnormal areas by MRI showed low signal intensity on T1 weighted imaging, high signal intensity on T2 weighted imaging and fluid attenuated inversion recovery, high or equal signal intensity on diffusion weighted imaging, high or low signal intensity on apparent diffusion coefficient; the lactate peak significantly increased on magnetic resonance spectroscopy.The distribution was not in accordance with the control region of the cerebral vessels.Dynamic observation revealed that the lesions were reversible and migratory.(3) Myopathological features: muscle biopsy was performed in all children, and ragged-red fibers were found in 10 cases by improved Gomori staining, strongly succinate dehydrogenase-reactive were found in 9 cases, and the lipid droplets slightly increased in 8 cases by oil red O staining.Besides, the crystalline inclusion bodies in mitochondria were arranged in a parking lot pattern in 9 cases by electromicroscope.(4) Molecular biological characteristics: the mitochondrial gene mutations were analyzed in peripheral blood of 9 children and their parents, including 8 cases with A3243G mutation and 1 case with G13513A mutation.Five mothers had the same A3243G mutation site in 8 cases. Conclusions Children with MELAS have complex and varied clinical manifestations and certain characteristic of neuroimaging.Moreover, muscle pathology and gene sequencing have important diagnostic value.Fully understanding the clinical, muscle pathology, imaging and molecular biological characteristics of children with MELAS can be helpful to the early diagnosis and treatment, also reduce misdiagnosis. Key words: Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy; Lactic acidosis; Stroke-like episodes; Clinical manifestation

Controlled spin pattern formation in multistable cavity–polariton systems

Theoretical studies are performed of planar cavity–polariton systems under resonant optical excitation. We show that if the cavity is spatially anisotropic, the polariton spin is highly sensitive to the pump polarization direction, which can be used to modulate the circular polarization of the output light. In particular, when the right- and left-circular components of the incident wave have equal intensities and mutually opposite angular momenta, the pump has strictly linear yet angle-dependent polarization and as such brings about a periodic angular variation of the polariton spin. Free motion of polaritons is the other factor determining the shape of the cavity-field distribution. Such externally driven and highly tunable spin patterns represent a counterpart of spin shaping in nonresonantly excited Bose–Einstein condensates of cavity polaritons.

Electrically tunable polarization splitting and conversion based on 1DPC structure with anisotropic defect layer

The present study examined the tunability of wave polarization splitting and conversion in a one-dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) structure containing anisotropic electro-optical material. The 4 × 4 transfer matrix method was used to study the transmission properties of the structure. The incident light was assumed to be perpendicular to the optical axes of the anisotropic defect layer. The results indicate that, in the absence of an applied external electric field, for an incident plane wave with P- or S-polarization, a single P- or S-polarized defect mode, respectively, appears with the photonic band gap. Application of the external electric field create two P-polarized and two S-polarized defect modes of equal intensity. As the applied field increased, the splitting mode increased. The photonic band edges of the induced P(S)-polarized mode decreased (increased) as the field increased. The results of this communication can be useful in the design of tunable mode-selecting optical filters.

Enhanced nonlinear susceptibility via double-double electromagnetically induced transparency

We investigate the nonlinear optical susceptibility of an alkali-metal atom with tripod electronic configuration responsible for generating cross-phase modulation and self-phase modulation under the condition of double-double electromagnetically induced transparency. Our investigation demonstrates an enhancement in the nonlinear optical susceptibility of an alkali-metal atom by a factor of 1000 in the region of the second transparency window. This enhancement is in comparison with the atom's susceptibility in the first transparency window for the same parameters under the same conditions. Nonlinear-absorption enhancement arises by canceling Raman-gain generation, which arises when the probe and signal fields have equal intensities. At the center of the second transparency window, we obtain the condition required to attain a nonvanishing nonlinear optical susceptibility. In the bare-state picture, the coupling field must be off resonant from a bare-to-bare-state transition, while working in the semiclassical dressed picture required the signal field to be tuned off resonantly with a bare-to-dressed-state transition. The relation that governs the values of coupling- and signal-field detuning are also obtained. Our scheme exhibits the fact that the second transparency window has advantages over the first transparency window with respect to obtaining an enhanced Kerr effect, and our calculation includes simulation of both low-temperature and Doppler-broadened regimes.

The flicker fusion frequency of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) revisited

While color vision and spatial resolution have been studied in many bird species, less is known about the temporal aspects of bird vision. High temporal resolution has been described in three species of passerines but it is unknown whether this is specific to passerines, to small actively flying birds, to insectivores or to birds living in bright habitats. Temporal resolution of vision is commonly tested by determining the flicker fusion frequency (FFF), at which the eye can no longer distinguish a flickering light from a constant light of equal intensity at different luminances. Using a food reward, we trained the birds to discriminate a constant light from a flickering light, at four different luminances between 750 and 7500 cd/m2. The highest FFF found in one bird at 3500 cd/m2 was 93 Hz. Three birds had higher FFF (82 Hz) at 7500 cd/m2 than at 3500 cd/m2. Six human subjects had lower FFF than the birds at 1500 but similar FFF at 750 cd/m2. These results indicate that high temporal resolution is not a common trait for all small and active birds living in bright light habitats. Whether it is typical for passerines or for insectivorous birds remains to be tested.