The comprehensive carrying capacity of urban land can reflect the re- source level, economic scale, social development and environmental pressure of ur- ban land carrying. The assessment indicator system of urban land...The comprehensive carrying capacity of urban land can reflect the re- source level, economic scale, social development and environmental pressure of ur- ban land carrying. The assessment indicator system of urban land comprehensive carrying capacity was constructed from the 4 aspects of resource, economy, society, environment, and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to evaluate the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity of Guangxi and the 14 cities in 2005-2014, and analyzed its spatial and temporal characteristics as well as the driving forces, with the aim to provide references for improving the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity. The results showed that, the overall urban land comprehensive carrying capacity in Guangxi increased in 2005-2014, and there were significant differences in the land comprehensive carrying capacities among the cities in Guangxi in 2005-2014, in which Liuzhou, Guilin, Nanning belonged to the regions with the highest carrying capacity, while Beihai, Yulin, Wutong belonged to the regions with high carrying capacity, and the carrying capacities of the other cities changed with the changes of time. The economic development degree was an important factor influencing urban land comprehensive carrying capacity, but could not directly represent the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity level.展开更多
A method of three-dimensional loaded slope stability for anisotropic and nonhomogeneous slopes was presented based on the upper-bound theorem of the limit analysis approach. The approach can be considered as a modific...A method of three-dimensional loaded slope stability for anisotropic and nonhomogeneous slopes was presented based on the upper-bound theorem of the limit analysis approach. The approach can be considered as a modification and extension of the solutions. The influences of friction angle, anisotropy factor, nonhomogeneous factor, slope angle, ratio of width to depth, and load on the slope crest were investigated. The results show that solutions are suitable to deal with the purely cohesive soils and frictional/cohesive soils, isotropic and anisotropic, homogeneous and nonhomogeneous, loaded and unloaded cases.展开更多
The bending problem of a functionally graded anisotropic cantilever beam subjected to thermal and uniformly dis-tributed load is investigated,with material parameters being arbitrary functions of the thickness coordin...The bending problem of a functionally graded anisotropic cantilever beam subjected to thermal and uniformly dis-tributed load is investigated,with material parameters being arbitrary functions of the thickness coordinate. The heat conduction problem is treated as a 1D problem through the thickness. Based on the elementary formulations for plane stress problem,the stress function is assumed to be in the form of polynomial of the longitudinal coordinate variable,from which the stresses can be derived. The stress function is then determined completely with the compatibility equation and boundary conditions. A practical example is presented to show the application of the method.展开更多
Language and culture are interactive and interdependent. Translation is not only the transfer between two languages, but also between two cultures. Therefore, cultural difference plays a significant role in translatio...Language and culture are interactive and interdependent. Translation is not only the transfer between two languages, but also between two cultures. Therefore, cultural difference plays a significant role in translation. In the past decades, translation study has shifted from the purely linguistic level to cultural perspective, and study on cultural differences has brought a new world for the sake of translation studies. This paper tries to illustrate the connection between language and culture, the correlation between culture and translation, analyze the main aspects of cultural differences between Chinese and Western, and sum up translation strategies of domestication and foreignization as well as specific translation methods on the consideration of cultural differences. Finally, the paper proposes that translators should pay attention to cultural differences and adjust target text in accordance with cultural differences展开更多
Terms of synthesis were determined for creation of new generation premixes and for their testing in experiments. Heteronuclear chelate citrates of general formula: M12MnL2.nH2O (where, M^I = Zn, Co, Fe, Mn, Cu; MH =...Terms of synthesis were determined for creation of new generation premixes and for their testing in experiments. Heteronuclear chelate citrates of general formula: M12MnL2.nH2O (where, M^I = Zn, Co, Fe, Mn, Cu; MH = Mn, Zn, Co, Cu; n = 0/4) were synthesized. Identity and composition of synthesized compounds were defined by microelemental analysis, determination of melting temperature and X-ray diffraction analysis. X-ray diffraction method was used also to define crystallinity of the compounds and their citric acid (H4L) component. X-ray amorphous and iso-structural orders were also revealed.展开更多
Free vibration analysis of non-homogeneous orthotropic plates resting on a Pasternak type of elastic foundation is investigated. A set of admissible orthogonal polynomials are generated with Gram-Schmidt orthogonaliza...Free vibration analysis of non-homogeneous orthotropic plates resting on a Pasternak type of elastic foundation is investigated. A set of admissible orthogonal polynomials are generated with Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure and adopted in the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Accuracy and applicability of the method are examined by comparison of the results for different boundary conditions and material types with those available in literature. It is found that this method has good accuracy regardless of type of boundary condition and yields very accurate results even with low number of terms of orthogonal polynomials for the first mode of vibration. For higher modes of vibration, higher terms of orthogonal polynomials should be used. The effects of foundation parameter, density and non-homogeneity parameters on natural frequency are examined. It is concluded that natural frequency of plates are more sensitive to shearing layer coefficient rather than Winkler coefficient and density parameter has weakening effect on natural frequency.展开更多
From economy to political administrations, education to health, environment to human rights, many problems we met have gained a global importance in recent days. Existing state systems, political parties and nation st...From economy to political administrations, education to health, environment to human rights, many problems we met have gained a global importance in recent days. Existing state systems, political parties and nation states are not adequate for solving these problems in question effectively on their own. Not only governments and local authorities but also voluntary organizations based on completely voluntary activities have significant roles in solving these problems. Effective performance of voluntary organizations depends on increasing volunteer population. Individuals' attitudes or their perception of understanding volunteerism play an important role in their contributions to voluntary organizations. The aim of this study is to determine individuals' ways of perceiving volunteerism concept and their tendency towards it. Furthermore, differences between men and women's perception and attitudes towards volunteerism concept have been examined. For this purpose, a survey has been conducted over university students of bachelor's degree. Tendencies and attitudes towards volunteerism compared to gender differences have been tested via logistic regression method. Research results reveal that women take part in voluntary activities more than men and women perceive volunteerism as "a political position" while men perceive volunteerism as "a learning atmosphere and learning process".展开更多
This works examine the responses of housing prices to the monetary policies in various Chinese cities. Thirty-five large and medium sized Chinese cities are classified into six clusters applying the minimum variance c...This works examine the responses of housing prices to the monetary policies in various Chinese cities. Thirty-five large and medium sized Chinese cities are classified into six clusters applying the minimum variance clustering method according to the calculated correlation coefficients between the housing price indices of every two cities.Time difference correlation analysis is then employed to quantify the relations between the housing price indices of the six clusters and the monetary policies.It is suggested that the housing prices of various cities evolved at different paces and their responses to the monetary policies are heterogeneous,and local economic features are more important than geographic distances in determining the housing price trends.展开更多
The purpose of the present study was to explore and subsequently establish a technique for determination of analytical solutions for the differential equation for composite thin plates. The considered reasons for the ...The purpose of the present study was to explore and subsequently establish a technique for determination of analytical solutions for the differential equation for composite thin plates. The considered reasons for the solutions were to exactly satisfy the boundary conditions and to verify as close as possible the differential equation of the plate. There are studied two solutions for orthotropic plate with clamped edges, and made comparisons with the solutions presented by Reddy [1] and with the exact solution by Timoshenko and Woinowsky. The models are based on the CLPT (classical laminated plate theory). The Ritz method, in conjunction with the weighted residue method for the coefficients calculation, is used to analytically determine the bending solutions of orthotropic laminated plates subjected to uniform pressure on the bottom laminate. The purposed solutions were critically analysed considering a FEM (finite element method) solution for comparison. Finally, it is presented the experimental device and the experimental test results, as well. Fabrics have been incorporated into two composite plates were required scalps on one direction, thus ensuring different elasticity modules on both directions. Thorough comparison between analytical solutions, numerical results and experimental data is performed and a good agreement is obtained.展开更多
Aiming at the problems of high time-consuming, low accuracy and weak versatility of the existing methods of wa- ter extraction based on TM image, this paper combines principal component analysis (PCA) with the modif...Aiming at the problems of high time-consuming, low accuracy and weak versatility of the existing methods of wa- ter extraction based on TM image, this paper combines principal component analysis (PCA) with the modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) which was improved by XU Han-qiu to construct a false color composite image that could separate water from others easily. This method can realize the water extraction based on TM image by analyzing the spectral characteristics of water in this false color image and establishing a water extraction model. This paper also compares the effi- ciency of this method with MNDWI, (TM2 + TM3) - (TM4 + TM5) and new water index (NWI), which were applied in the city and mountain of Taiyuan, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can extract water body from TM im- age more rapidly and efficiently and its accuracy is up to 94.03 %. In addition, this method does not require a manual selec- tion threshold, which meets the research reuuirement of high automaticm.展开更多
As the video game industry has firmly established itself as an art form as well as entertainment, certain games and content have led to legal issues in several countries. These court cases usually fall under freedom o...As the video game industry has firmly established itself as an art form as well as entertainment, certain games and content have led to legal issues in several countries. These court cases usually fall under freedom of speech and expression. The author has studied three of the five top video game producing and purchasing markets in the world--the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea--to explore how each country regulates this industry These three countries explicitly guarantee their citizens the freedoms of speech and expression, but, due to cultural differences and historical interpretations of those rights, the policies concerned with gaming have been handled differently by each country. The argument of the author is that historic interpretations of freedom of speech in legal cases can inform how video games and content controversy will be decided by the constitutional courts in these three countries. Japan and the Republic of Korea, for example, have historically interpreted freedom of speech rights in a way that benefits the citizenry as a whole, marking them as more collective. The United States has historically interpreted freedom of speech and expression in a way that benefits individual citizens, marking it as individualistic. These cultural aspects of how legal decisions are reached has affected the relatively new technology of video games展开更多
A super-resolution reconstruction approach of (SVD) technique was presented, and its performance was radar image using an adaptive-threshold singular value decomposition analyzed, compared and assessed detailedly. F...A super-resolution reconstruction approach of (SVD) technique was presented, and its performance was radar image using an adaptive-threshold singular value decomposition analyzed, compared and assessed detailedly. First, radar imaging model and super-resolution reconstruction mechanism were outlined. Then, the adaptive-threshold SVD super-resolution algorithm, and its two key aspects, namely the determination method of point spread function (PSF) matrix T and the selection scheme of singular value threshold, were presented. Finally, the super-resolution algorithm was demonstrated successfully using the measured synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images, and a Monte Carlo assessment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm by using the input/output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Five versions of SVD algorithms, namely 1 ) using all singular values, 2) using the top 80% singular values, 3) using the top 50% singular values, 4) using the top 20% singular values and 5) using singular values s such that S2≥/max(s2)/rinsNR were tested. The experimental results indicate that when the singular value threshold is set as Smax/(rinSNR)1/2, the super-resolution algorithm provides a good compromise between too much noise and too much bias and has good reconstruction results.展开更多
By analyzing and comparing the existing methods for the division of urban economic region, this paper supplemented and developed the breaking point theory. In this model, put forward for the first time using "the spa...By analyzing and comparing the existing methods for the division of urban economic region, this paper supplemented and developed the breaking point theory. In this model, put forward for the first time using "the space-time distance" to replace "the space- linear distance" and "the city comprehensiveness quality- fuzzy comprehensive assessment Index" to "the urban population or GDP'. Set up the algorithm of including "the space- time distance" and the city radiation scope changed with the changes of traffic conditions. Thus has realized "dynamically" tracing of the city radiation scope influenced by the traffic conditions. Taking Yichang city as an example, the paper analyzed the city function localization in the times of new traffic environments. Because China's cities are at the times of the traffic great changes, therefore, the method and the main conclusions of this paper have some methodology guiding sense to the majority cities of deffernt country to re-position.展开更多
We report the present knowledge about RPHM21, a novel male-specific mitochondrial protein with a putative role in the paternal inheritance of sperm mitochondria in the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum, a species wi...We report the present knowledge about RPHM21, a novel male-specific mitochondrial protein with a putative role in the paternal inheritance of sperm mitochondria in the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum, a species with doubly uniparental inheritance of mitochondria (DUI). We review all the available data on rphm21 transcription and translation, analyze in detail its female counterpart, RPHF22, discuss the homology with RPHM21, the putative function and origin, and analyze their polymorphism. The available evidence is compatible with a viral origin of RPHM21 and supports its activity during spermatogenesis. RPHM21 is progressively accumulated in mitochondria and nuclei of spermatogenic cells, and we hypothesize it can influence mitochondrial inheritance and sex- ual differentiation. We propose a testable model that describes how the acquisition of selfish fea- tures by a mitochondrial lineage might have been responsible for the emergence of DUI, and for the evolution of separate sexes (gonochorism) from hermaphroditism. The appearance of DUI most likely entailed the invasion of at least 1 selfish element, and the extant DUI systems can be seen as resolved conflicts. It was proposed that hermaphroditism was the ancestral condition of bivalves, and a correlation between DUI and gonochorism was documented. We hypothesize that DUI might have driven the shift from hermaphroditism to gonochorism, with androdioecy as transi- tion state. The invasion of sex-ratio distorters and the evolution of suppressors can prompt rapid changes among sex-determination mechanisms, and DUI might have been responsible for one of such changes in some bivalve species. If true, DUI would represent the first animal sex-determination system involving mtDNA-encoded proteins.展开更多
基金Supported by the Open Bidding Projects of the Office of Land and Resources of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region(GXZC2015-G3-0575-GTZB)~~
文摘The comprehensive carrying capacity of urban land can reflect the re- source level, economic scale, social development and environmental pressure of ur- ban land carrying. The assessment indicator system of urban land comprehensive carrying capacity was constructed from the 4 aspects of resource, economy, society, environment, and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to evaluate the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity of Guangxi and the 14 cities in 2005-2014, and analyzed its spatial and temporal characteristics as well as the driving forces, with the aim to provide references for improving the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity. The results showed that, the overall urban land comprehensive carrying capacity in Guangxi increased in 2005-2014, and there were significant differences in the land comprehensive carrying capacities among the cities in Guangxi in 2005-2014, in which Liuzhou, Guilin, Nanning belonged to the regions with the highest carrying capacity, while Beihai, Yulin, Wutong belonged to the regions with high carrying capacity, and the carrying capacities of the other cities changed with the changes of time. The economic development degree was an important factor influencing urban land comprehensive carrying capacity, but could not directly represent the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity level.
基金Projects(41002095,41172251,41272317) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘A method of three-dimensional loaded slope stability for anisotropic and nonhomogeneous slopes was presented based on the upper-bound theorem of the limit analysis approach. The approach can be considered as a modification and extension of the solutions. The influences of friction angle, anisotropy factor, nonhomogeneous factor, slope angle, ratio of width to depth, and load on the slope crest were investigated. The results show that solutions are suitable to deal with the purely cohesive soils and frictional/cohesive soils, isotropic and anisotropic, homogeneous and nonhomogeneous, loaded and unloaded cases.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 10472102 and 1043203)the Foundation of Ningbo University (No. 2005014), China
文摘The bending problem of a functionally graded anisotropic cantilever beam subjected to thermal and uniformly dis-tributed load is investigated,with material parameters being arbitrary functions of the thickness coordinate. The heat conduction problem is treated as a 1D problem through the thickness. Based on the elementary formulations for plane stress problem,the stress function is assumed to be in the form of polynomial of the longitudinal coordinate variable,from which the stresses can be derived. The stress function is then determined completely with the compatibility equation and boundary conditions. A practical example is presented to show the application of the method.
文摘Language and culture are interactive and interdependent. Translation is not only the transfer between two languages, but also between two cultures. Therefore, cultural difference plays a significant role in translation. In the past decades, translation study has shifted from the purely linguistic level to cultural perspective, and study on cultural differences has brought a new world for the sake of translation studies. This paper tries to illustrate the connection between language and culture, the correlation between culture and translation, analyze the main aspects of cultural differences between Chinese and Western, and sum up translation strategies of domestication and foreignization as well as specific translation methods on the consideration of cultural differences. Finally, the paper proposes that translators should pay attention to cultural differences and adjust target text in accordance with cultural differences
基金Acknowledgments We thank Science & Technology Center in Ukraine and ShotaRustaveli National Science Foundation. The work was implemented with the support of Science & Technology Center in Ukraine Project Proposal #5461 and ShotaRustaveli National Science Foundation Grant #30/06.
文摘Terms of synthesis were determined for creation of new generation premixes and for their testing in experiments. Heteronuclear chelate citrates of general formula: M12MnL2.nH2O (where, M^I = Zn, Co, Fe, Mn, Cu; MH = Mn, Zn, Co, Cu; n = 0/4) were synthesized. Identity and composition of synthesized compounds were defined by microelemental analysis, determination of melting temperature and X-ray diffraction analysis. X-ray diffraction method was used also to define crystallinity of the compounds and their citric acid (H4L) component. X-ray amorphous and iso-structural orders were also revealed.
文摘Free vibration analysis of non-homogeneous orthotropic plates resting on a Pasternak type of elastic foundation is investigated. A set of admissible orthogonal polynomials are generated with Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure and adopted in the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Accuracy and applicability of the method are examined by comparison of the results for different boundary conditions and material types with those available in literature. It is found that this method has good accuracy regardless of type of boundary condition and yields very accurate results even with low number of terms of orthogonal polynomials for the first mode of vibration. For higher modes of vibration, higher terms of orthogonal polynomials should be used. The effects of foundation parameter, density and non-homogeneity parameters on natural frequency are examined. It is concluded that natural frequency of plates are more sensitive to shearing layer coefficient rather than Winkler coefficient and density parameter has weakening effect on natural frequency.
文摘From economy to political administrations, education to health, environment to human rights, many problems we met have gained a global importance in recent days. Existing state systems, political parties and nation states are not adequate for solving these problems in question effectively on their own. Not only governments and local authorities but also voluntary organizations based on completely voluntary activities have significant roles in solving these problems. Effective performance of voluntary organizations depends on increasing volunteer population. Individuals' attitudes or their perception of understanding volunteerism play an important role in their contributions to voluntary organizations. The aim of this study is to determine individuals' ways of perceiving volunteerism concept and their tendency towards it. Furthermore, differences between men and women's perception and attitudes towards volunteerism concept have been examined. For this purpose, a survey has been conducted over university students of bachelor's degree. Tendencies and attitudes towards volunteerism compared to gender differences have been tested via logistic regression method. Research results reveal that women take part in voluntary activities more than men and women perceive volunteerism as "a political position" while men perceive volunteerism as "a learning atmosphere and learning process".
基金Supported by the Hundred Talent Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.71103179 and 71102129Program for Young Innovative Research Team in China University of Political Science and Law, 2010 Fund Project under the Ministry of Education of China for Youth Who are Devoted to Humanities and Social Sciences Research 10YJC630425
文摘This works examine the responses of housing prices to the monetary policies in various Chinese cities. Thirty-five large and medium sized Chinese cities are classified into six clusters applying the minimum variance clustering method according to the calculated correlation coefficients between the housing price indices of every two cities.Time difference correlation analysis is then employed to quantify the relations between the housing price indices of the six clusters and the monetary policies.It is suggested that the housing prices of various cities evolved at different paces and their responses to the monetary policies are heterogeneous,and local economic features are more important than geographic distances in determining the housing price trends.
文摘The purpose of the present study was to explore and subsequently establish a technique for determination of analytical solutions for the differential equation for composite thin plates. The considered reasons for the solutions were to exactly satisfy the boundary conditions and to verify as close as possible the differential equation of the plate. There are studied two solutions for orthotropic plate with clamped edges, and made comparisons with the solutions presented by Reddy [1] and with the exact solution by Timoshenko and Woinowsky. The models are based on the CLPT (classical laminated plate theory). The Ritz method, in conjunction with the weighted residue method for the coefficients calculation, is used to analytically determine the bending solutions of orthotropic laminated plates subjected to uniform pressure on the bottom laminate. The purposed solutions were critically analysed considering a FEM (finite element method) solution for comparison. Finally, it is presented the experimental device and the experimental test results, as well. Fabrics have been incorporated into two composite plates were required scalps on one direction, thus ensuring different elasticity modules on both directions. Thorough comparison between analytical solutions, numerical results and experimental data is performed and a good agreement is obtained.
文摘Aiming at the problems of high time-consuming, low accuracy and weak versatility of the existing methods of wa- ter extraction based on TM image, this paper combines principal component analysis (PCA) with the modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) which was improved by XU Han-qiu to construct a false color composite image that could separate water from others easily. This method can realize the water extraction based on TM image by analyzing the spectral characteristics of water in this false color image and establishing a water extraction model. This paper also compares the effi- ciency of this method with MNDWI, (TM2 + TM3) - (TM4 + TM5) and new water index (NWI), which were applied in the city and mountain of Taiyuan, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can extract water body from TM im- age more rapidly and efficiently and its accuracy is up to 94.03 %. In addition, this method does not require a manual selec- tion threshold, which meets the research reuuirement of high automaticm.
文摘As the video game industry has firmly established itself as an art form as well as entertainment, certain games and content have led to legal issues in several countries. These court cases usually fall under freedom of speech and expression. The author has studied three of the five top video game producing and purchasing markets in the world--the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea--to explore how each country regulates this industry These three countries explicitly guarantee their citizens the freedoms of speech and expression, but, due to cultural differences and historical interpretations of those rights, the policies concerned with gaming have been handled differently by each country. The argument of the author is that historic interpretations of freedom of speech in legal cases can inform how video games and content controversy will be decided by the constitutional courts in these three countries. Japan and the Republic of Korea, for example, have historically interpreted freedom of speech rights in a way that benefits the citizenry as a whole, marking them as more collective. The United States has historically interpreted freedom of speech and expression in a way that benefits individual citizens, marking it as individualistic. These cultural aspects of how legal decisions are reached has affected the relatively new technology of video games
基金Project(2008041001) supported by the Academician Foundation of China Project(N0601-041) supported by the General Armament Department Science Foundation of China
文摘A super-resolution reconstruction approach of (SVD) technique was presented, and its performance was radar image using an adaptive-threshold singular value decomposition analyzed, compared and assessed detailedly. First, radar imaging model and super-resolution reconstruction mechanism were outlined. Then, the adaptive-threshold SVD super-resolution algorithm, and its two key aspects, namely the determination method of point spread function (PSF) matrix T and the selection scheme of singular value threshold, were presented. Finally, the super-resolution algorithm was demonstrated successfully using the measured synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images, and a Monte Carlo assessment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm by using the input/output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Five versions of SVD algorithms, namely 1 ) using all singular values, 2) using the top 80% singular values, 3) using the top 50% singular values, 4) using the top 20% singular values and 5) using singular values s such that S2≥/max(s2)/rinsNR were tested. The experimental results indicate that when the singular value threshold is set as Smax/(rinSNR)1/2, the super-resolution algorithm provides a good compromise between too much noise and too much bias and has good reconstruction results.
文摘By analyzing and comparing the existing methods for the division of urban economic region, this paper supplemented and developed the breaking point theory. In this model, put forward for the first time using "the space-time distance" to replace "the space- linear distance" and "the city comprehensiveness quality- fuzzy comprehensive assessment Index" to "the urban population or GDP'. Set up the algorithm of including "the space- time distance" and the city radiation scope changed with the changes of traffic conditions. Thus has realized "dynamically" tracing of the city radiation scope influenced by the traffic conditions. Taking Yichang city as an example, the paper analyzed the city function localization in the times of new traffic environments. Because China's cities are at the times of the traffic great changes, therefore, the method and the main conclusions of this paper have some methodology guiding sense to the majority cities of deffernt country to re-position.
文摘We report the present knowledge about RPHM21, a novel male-specific mitochondrial protein with a putative role in the paternal inheritance of sperm mitochondria in the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum, a species with doubly uniparental inheritance of mitochondria (DUI). We review all the available data on rphm21 transcription and translation, analyze in detail its female counterpart, RPHF22, discuss the homology with RPHM21, the putative function and origin, and analyze their polymorphism. The available evidence is compatible with a viral origin of RPHM21 and supports its activity during spermatogenesis. RPHM21 is progressively accumulated in mitochondria and nuclei of spermatogenic cells, and we hypothesize it can influence mitochondrial inheritance and sex- ual differentiation. We propose a testable model that describes how the acquisition of selfish fea- tures by a mitochondrial lineage might have been responsible for the emergence of DUI, and for the evolution of separate sexes (gonochorism) from hermaphroditism. The appearance of DUI most likely entailed the invasion of at least 1 selfish element, and the extant DUI systems can be seen as resolved conflicts. It was proposed that hermaphroditism was the ancestral condition of bivalves, and a correlation between DUI and gonochorism was documented. We hypothesize that DUI might have driven the shift from hermaphroditism to gonochorism, with androdioecy as transi- tion state. The invasion of sex-ratio distorters and the evolution of suppressors can prompt rapid changes among sex-determination mechanisms, and DUI might have been responsible for one of such changes in some bivalve species. If true, DUI would represent the first animal sex-determination system involving mtDNA-encoded proteins.