Glossary of the key notions in Bionics and beyond

Infrared Spectroscopy → IR (Infrared) spectroscopy is a kind of optical spectroscopy that employs infrared radiation. It is particularly useful for determining the kinds of structural groups present in compounds in organic chemistry.

Inhibitors → Substances which slowers the enzymatic reaction.

Inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) → A synaptic potential that decreases the chance that a future action potential will occur in a postsynaptic neuron. They usually result from the flow of negative ions into the cell or positive ions out of the cell, as a consequence of ligand-sensitive channel opening.

Initialization method → The way as the initial weight values are set, before strating the learning procedure.

Inner hair cells → The hair cells are the receptors of the auditory system. They are located in the organ of Corti on the basilar membrane. The ~ transform the fluid vibrations caused by sound waves to electric signals which will be transmitted to the brain.

Inorganic compounds → Compounds composed of elements other than carbon and hydrogen.

Input delay → The difference between the centroids of the voltage response and the inducing current, both measured at the point of injection

Input layer → The leftmost layer of the FFNN, whereas the input is connected

Input resistance → The ~ at the point of a current injection pulse is given by Ohm’s law from the change in membrane potential after it has reached a steady state: input resistance = (local voltage change)/(local current injection)

Insertional activity → Short electric discharges of muscle origin resulting from the mechanical irritation occuring during the needle electrode movements.

Insig → ~ is a protein in the endoplasmic reticulum which binds SCAP and retains its complex with SREBP in the endoplasmic reticulum in cholesterol-rich state of the cell

Inspiratory Reserve Volume → From the maximum volume of air flowing into the lungs by inhalation (ca. 3500 ml), we subtract the value of the tidal volume (ca. 500 ml) = ca. 3000 ml.

Instruction → An ~ is a single operation of a processor defined by an instruction set architecture.

Instruction decoder → The ~ is the part of the CPU that converts the bits stored in the instruction register.

Instruction set architecture → ISA defines the microarchitecure and defines the hardware-software interface

Insulation resistance → Resistance between the intracellular electrode and the extracellular space preventing current flow between the intracellular and extracellular spaces.

Insulator → Insulators are materials that do not let electrons flow very easily from one atom to another. Insulators are materials whose atoms have tightly bound electrons. These electrons are not free to roam around and be shared by neighboring atoms.

Integral membrane proteins → Membrane proteins which are attached permanently to the membrane.

Integrate-and-fire model → A class of simple, point-like model neurons, where spike-generating conductances are not modeled explicitly. Instead, if the membrane voltage reaches a threshold value, a Dirac-delta function spike occurs, and the voltage is reset to a predefined potential.

Integrator neuron → A type of neuron which sums its inputs

Intellectual Property (IP) → I~, the abbr. IP is used for design blocks that have been designed by others and used as a closed entity.

Intensity matrix → Contains elements that are the intensities of hybridization signals read from a microarray

Intensive properties → Their value does not depends on the amount of substance. They are scale-invariant.

Interelectrode distance → The distance between the consecutive electrode sites.

Interface (in general) → a surface regarded as the common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases/a common boundary or interconnection between systems, equipment, concepts/a thing or circumstance that enables separate and sometimes incompatible elements to coordinate effectively.

Interface (information technology) → Because of the data transmission between the central part of the computer and the I/O units attached to it, we need to secure the physical and logical ~ and the coordinated operation of the system. Therefore, the computer is attached to the input and output devices through control and ~ circuits.

Interference → ~ (wave propagation), in physics, the superposition of two or more waves resulting in a new wave pattern. ~ usually refers to the interaction of waves that are correlated or coherent with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency.

Interference pattern → The interference of the electrical activity produced by voluntary activated motor units during maximal effort.

Interference-limited systems → It is characterized by the following: i) the unregulated use of spectrum leads to interference; ii) in regulated spectrum the network operator can determine the location of BSs.

Interferential current → a combination of 2 high-frequency waveforms (4000 and 4100 Hz) in crossed pattern.

Interkinesis → The period between two mitoses of a nucleus

Interleaved image acquisition → The joint collection of data for two or more separate images such that a subset of k-space samples for the second image is acquired immediately after that for the first image. This method avoids misregistration between the two images and allows for accurate subtraction of the two images.

Intermediate layer → Layers between the input and output layer

Internal energy (thermodynamics) → In phenomenological thermodynamics, the ~ is a measure which gives the whole energy of a system. The ~ is a state function.

International 10-20 system → Standard arrangement of the scalp electrodes where the distance between the electrodes is 10 or 20 per cent of the total distance e.g. between the nasion and the inion.

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) → The ~ serves to advance the worldwide aspects of the chemical sciences and to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of Mankind. As a scientific, international, non-governmental and objective body, ~ can address many global issues involving the chemical sciences.

Interneuron → ~ are types of nerve cells, typically found in integrative areas of the central nervous system, whose axons (and dendrites) are limited to a single brain area. Many of them are inhibitory.

Interpolation → In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, ~ is an estimation method of an unknown quantity between two known quantitie

Interrupt → An ~ is an asynchronous signal indicating the need for attention or a synchronous event in software indicating the need for a change in execution.

Interstimulus interval (ISI) → The ~ is the temporal interval between the offset of one stimulus to the onset of another.

Intracellular degradation of proteins → Blood plasma glycoproteins and intracellular proteins are degraded in lysosomes. Receptor-mediated endocytosis. ATP-dependent protein degradation.

Intracellular resistivity → The resistance that applies to charged particles which travel through intracellular space, characteristic of the materials but independent of geometry.

Intracellular unit activity → Action potentials of a given cell measured inside the cell.

Intracerebral → Within the brain

Intracranial → Within the skull.

Intrinsic semiconductor → An ~ is a pure semiconductor without any significant dopant species present. The number of charge carriers is therefore determined by the properties of the material itself instead of the amount of impurities. In intrinsic semiconductors the number of excited electrons (in the conduction band) and the number of holes (in the valence band) are equal.

Intron → The non-translated part of the gene. Intron-coded portion of the primary transcript is spliced out during RNA maturation.

Invariant → Something that does not change under a transformation, such as from one reference frame to another

Invasive → A medical procedure during which the body is penetrated by cutting or pricking.

Invasive BCI → Invasive BCIs require neurosurgery to implant the electrodes used to detect brain activity on the cortical surface or within the brain.

Inverse kinematic problem (neuromorph movement contorl) → A special kind of ~: given a limb and a desired trajectory or target position of its endpoint. Compute the time course of joint angles that would result the given endpoint trajectory.

Inversion of configuration (Walden inversion) → The configurational change when a chemical species Xabcd (where X is typically carbon), having a tetrahedral arrangement of bonds to X, is converted into the chemical species Xabce having the opposite relative configuration (or when it undergoes an identity reaction in which Xabcd of opposite configuration is produced) is called a Walden inversion or inversion of configuration. The occurrence of a Walden inversion during a chemical transformation is sometimes indicated in the chemical equation by the symbol shown below in place of a simple arrow pointing from reactants to products.

In-vivo → In the living organism.

Ion → The atom or the molecule, by which the total number of electrons are either more or less than the total number of protons resulting in an electrical charge of the atom or molecule.

Ion atmosphere → An electrical shading layer of opposite charges around an ion.

Ion channel → Pore-forming proteins that help establish and control the small voltage gradient across the plasma membrane of cells by allowing the flow of ions down their electrochemical gradient.

Ion channel gate → A gate is a (hypothetical) part of the ion channel protein, which can close to disable, or open to permit ion flow through the channel.

Ion channel steady-state activation function → (in the HH model) A voltage-dependent variable which describes the activation percentage of a channel at steady-state at a given voltage.

Ion channel time constant → (in the HH model) A voltage-dependent variable which describes how fast the channel will react to membrane potential changes.

Ion pump → A transmembrane protein that moves ions across a plasma membrane against their electrochemical gradient, in contrast to ion channels, where ions go through passive transport

Ionic bond → The ~ is a strong interaction between an anion and a cation. It can be considered as theoretically resulting from the complete transfer of an electron from an electropositive atom to an electronegative atom and not as a result of any unequal sharing of electrons between the atoms.

Ionic strength → I=∑c_iz_i² where I is the ionic strength of a solution, c_i is the molar concentration of the i’th ion species and z_i is the charge of that species.

Ionization → An atom or molecule needs energy - ~ energy (electronvolt, eV) - to remove electrons from them. Large atoms require low ~ energy while small atoms require high ~ energy.

Ion-selective electrode → The membrane separating the different fluids is permeable to some ions only

Irreversible → Not able to be undone or altered. Occurring through a number of intermediate states that are not all in thermodynamic equilibrium

Iso curve → An ~ is a curve on a surface representing the same height values.

Isobaric process → A process occurring at a constant pressure.

Isocenter → The point in space through which the central ray of the radiation beams pass, half-way between x-ray source and detector.

Isochoric process → A process occurring at constant volume.

Isoelectric point → A pH value where a particular protein has no net charge because of quenching by positive and negative groups.

Isoenzymes → Enzymes catalyzing the same reaction but differ: in amino acid sequence, Vmax, and/or Km, in regulation

Isolated system → It can exchange neither matter nor heat with its environment.

Isomer → Molecules having the same atomic composition but different arrangement of connectivity of them.

Isomerase → An enzyme which catalyzes the transfer of composite chemical groups or a double bond within a molecule

Isomerisation → ~ is the process by which one molecule is transformed into another molecule. These related molecules are known as isomers. Isomers has exactly the same atoms, but the atoms are rearranged- (e.g. A-B-C → B-A-C).

Isometric contraction → The muscle remains at the same length while producing force

Isothermal process → A process occurring at a constant temperature.

Isothiazole → Thiazole is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound with three carbon atoms andone sulfur (at position 1) an one nitrogen (at position 2). (formula C3H3NS)

Isotonic contraction → the tension in the muscle remains constant despite the change of muscle length. It occurs if the maximal force of a muscle during contraction exceeds the total load acting on the muscle.

Isotope → Among the atoms of a given chemical element, atom types of different mass number may occur. These atom types are called the isotopes of the given element.

Isotropic antenna → It radiates equally in all directions. This a theoretical antenna that cannot be built.

Isotropic etching → The etching process is the same in all directions.

Isoxazole → ~ is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound with three carbon atoms and one oxigen (at position 1) an one nitrogen (at position 2). The oxygen atom is next to the nitrogen. (formula C3H3NO)

Iteration → ~ means the act of repeating a process usually with the aim of approaching a desired goal or target or result. Each repetition of the process is also called an “iteration,” and the results of one ~ are used as the starting point for the next ~.

13. J

J. J. Thomson → Sir Joseph John “J. J.” Thomson (1856–1940) was a British physicist. He is credited for the discovery of the electron (1906 Nobel Prize) and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer.

Jacobian matrix → The ~ is the matrix of all first-order partial derivatives of a vector- or scalar-valued function with respect to another vector.

Jeans → Sir James Hopwood Jeans (1877–1946) was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician.

Jerk → Rate of change of the acceleration. The third derivative (with respect to time) of the angular change

Jiggle → Instability of a single motor unit recorded sequentially using a delay line. Abnormal jiggle indicates an active disease process which can be of nerve, neuromuscular or muscle origin.

Jitter → In single fiber electromyography it describes the variability at consecutive discharges in time interval between two single muscle fiber action potentials. It is expressed in microseconds.

Joint synergy → the cooperation of joints in order to execute a motor task.

Junction → The term ~ refers to the boundary interface where the two regions of the semiconductor meet by joining together in very close contact.

14. K

Kainate receptor → A subset of ionotropic glutamate receptors activated specifically by kaninic acid.

Karnaugh table → The Boolean functions having few, maximum 4 variables are represented by Karnaugh tables. The function is represented on a table of cells. Each and every cell represents a regular term (minterm or maxterm). The cells are placed side by side in a way that the neighbouring cells’ terms should be different from each other in only one logical value. This should be true vertically and horizontally as well. B1226

K-complex → Large amplitude transient EEG pattern in sleep, with a sharp wave followed by a slow wave lasting more than 0.5 s. It may be followed by a sleep spindle.

Ketogenic amino acids → Amino acids with carbon skeleton that can be used in ketone body synthesis during starvation (e.g. leucine, lysine)

Ketones → ~ are compounds in which a carbonyl group is bonded to two carbon atoms R2C=O (neither R may be H).

K-factor model → A simple model for delay estimation

Kinase → A transferase which catalyzes the transfer a phosphate

Kinematics → Describes the motion of bodies (objects) and systems (groups of objects) without consideration of the forces that cause the motion

Kinetic control → ~ is the term characterizes conditions (including reaction times) that lead to reaction products in a proportion governed by the relative rates of the parallel (forward) reactions in which the products are formed, rather than by the respective overall equilibrium constants.

Kinetic energy → The ~ of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity (or decelerate from its current speed to a state of rest). Having gained the energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this ~ unless its speed changes. The speed, and thus the ~ of a single object is frame-dependent (relative): it can take any non-negative value, by choosing a suitable inertial frame of reference. The total ~ has a non-zero minimum, as no inertial reference frame can be chosen in which all the objects are stationary. This minimum ~ contributes to the system’s invariant mass, which is independent of the reference frame.

Kinetic steady state → The state of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction when the rate of formation of the enzyme-substrate complex equals the rate of its degradation

Kirchhoff’s current law → At any junction in an electrical circuit, the sum of currents flowing into that node is equal to the sum of currents flowing out of that node.

Kirchhoff’s voltage law → The directed sum of the electrical voltage differences around any closed circuit is zero.

K-means clustering → A partitioning clustering method that iteratively forms k predefined number of clusters

Knee frequency → The ~ is related to the required bandwidth of a channel.

Knocked loose → Energy contained within the incident light is absorbed by electrons within the metal, giving the electrons sufficient energy to be ‘knocked’ out of, that is, emitted from, the surface of the metal.

Korotkov sounds → The ~ is created because of the turbulent flow, its appearance correlates with the systolic pressure, its disappearance correlates with the diastolic pressure.

Kronecker delta (math) → (math) a function of 2 variables, whose functional value is 1, if the variables have equal values, and 0 otherwise+B1829 (named after Leopold Kronecker).

K-space → ~ is an imaginary space whose coordinates are in terms of phase and frequency for conventional imaging and in terms of phase in 2 or 3 dimensions for 2-D and 3-D chemical shift imaging. The ~ matrix is to obtain the familiar spatial dimensions.

Kymograph → Is a device invented by Carl Ludwig (1801-1858) in 1847. The ~ gives a graphical representation of spatial position over time in which a spatial axis represents time. It consists of a rotating drum wrapped with a sheet of smoked paper on which a stylus moves back and forth recording changes. It was used for recording the blood pressure or time related events as muscle contraction.

15. L

Lactams → ~ are cyclic amides of amino carboxylic acids, having a 1-azacycloalkan-2-one structure, or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring.

Lactones → ~ are cyclic esters of hydroxy carboxylic acids, containing a 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure, or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring.

Lactose → The disaccharide of the milk, containing glucose and galactose

Lagrange → Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813), born Giuseppe Lodovico (Luigi) Lagrangia, was a mathematician and astronomer, making significant contributions to all fields of analysis, to number theory, and to classical and celestial mechanics.

Lagrange-multiplier → The method of Lagrange multipliers provides a strategy for finding the maxima and minima of a (multivariable) function subject to constraints. The method of Lagrange multipliers yields a necessary condition for optimality in constrained problems.

Lagrangian mechanics → ~ is a re-formulation of classical mechanics that combines conservation of momentum with conservation of energy. It was introduced by the French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. In Lagrangian mechanics, the trajectory of a system of particles is derived by solving the Lagrange equations in one of two forms, either the Lagrange equations of the first kind, which treat constraints explicitly as extra equations, often using Lagrange multipliers; or the Lagrange equations of the second kind, which incorporate the constraints directly by judicious choice of generalized coordinates. The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations shows that solving the Lagrange equations is equivalent to finding the path for which the action functional is stationary, a quantity that is the integral of the Lagrangian over time.

Laplace transform → The ~ is an integral transform perhaps second only to the Fourier transform in its utility in solving physical problems. The ~ is particularly useful in solving linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients such as those arising in the analysis of electronic circuits.

Larmour-frequency → The ~ is the frequency or rate of precession of the nuclear magnetic moment (spins) and is proportional to the magnetic field strength as shown in the Larmor equation: f= -gBo/2pi where f is the ~ in Hertz, g is the gyromagnetic ratio of the nucleus, and Bo is the magnetic field strength.

Laser → Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, emits light (electromagnetic radiation) - with high degree of spatial and temporal coherence, - through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons.

Laser tweezer → Optical tweezers (originally called “single-beam gradient force trap”) are scientific instruments that use a highly-focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force (typically on the order of piconewtons), depending on the refractive index mismatch to physically hold and move microscopic dielectric objects, neutral molecules.

Late wave → After stimulating a motor or a mixed nerve by certain circumstances new response potentials emerge after the first response. These are called late responses or late waves.