13,651 research outputs found
Potential climatic transitions with profound impact on Europe
We discuss potential transitions of six climatic subsystems with large-scale impact on Europe, sometimes denoted as tipping elements. These are the ice sheets on Greenland and West Antarctica, the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, Arctic sea ice, Alpine glaciers and northern hemisphere stratospheric ozone. Each system is represented by co-authors actively publishing in the corresponding field. For each subsystem we summarize the mechanism of a potential transition in a warmer climate along with its impact on Europe and assess the likelihood for such a transition based on published scientific literature. As a summary, the ‘tipping’ potential for each system is provided as a function of global mean temperature increase which required some subjective interpretation of scientific facts by the authors and should be considered as a snapshot of our current understanding. <br/
Fractals in the Nervous System: conceptual Implications for Theoretical Neuroscience
This essay is presented with two principal objectives in mind: first, to
document the prevalence of fractals at all levels of the nervous system, giving
credence to the notion of their functional relevance; and second, to draw
attention to the as yet still unresolved issues of the detailed relationships
among power law scaling, self-similarity, and self-organized criticality. As
regards criticality, I will document that it has become a pivotal reference
point in Neurodynamics. Furthermore, I will emphasize the not yet fully
appreciated significance of allometric control processes. For dynamic fractals,
I will assemble reasons for attributing to them the capacity to adapt task
execution to contextual changes across a range of scales. The final Section
consists of general reflections on the implications of the reviewed data, and
identifies what appear to be issues of fundamental importance for future
research in the rapidly evolving topic of this review
Simulation of guiding of multiply charged projectiles through insulating capillaries
Recent experiments have demonstrated that highly charged ions can be guided
through insulating nanocapillaries along the direction of the capillary axis
for a surprisingly wide range of injection angles. Even more surprisingly, the
transmitted particles remain predominantly in their initial charge state, thus
opening the pathway to the construction of novel ion-optical elements without
electric feedthroughs. We present a theoretical treatment of this
self-organized guiding process. We develop a classical trajectory transport
theory that relates the microscopic charge-up with macroscopic material
properties. Transmission coefficients, angular spread of transmitted particles,
and discharge characteristics of the target are investigated. Partial agreement
with experiment is found
Quasi-two-dimensional complex plasma containing spherical particles and their binary agglomerates
A new type of quasi-two-dimensional complex plasma system was observed which
consisted of monodisperse microspheres and their binary agglomerations
(dimers). The particles and their dimers levitated in a plasma sheath at
slightly different heights and formed two distinct sublayers. The sys- tem did
not crystallize and may be characterized as disordered solid. The dimers were
identified based on their characteristic appearance in defocused images, i.e.,
rotating interference fringe pat- terns. The in-plane and inter-plane particle
separations exhibit nonmonotonic dependence on the discharge pressure which
agrees well with theoretical predictions
Electric discharge contour dynamics model: the effects of curvature and finite conductivity
In this paper we present the complete derivation of the effective contour
model for electrical discharges which appears as the asymptotic limit of the
minimal streamer model for the propagation of electric discharges, when the
electron diffusion is small. It consists of two integro-differential equations
defined at the boundary of the plasma region: one for the motion and a second
equation for the net charge density at the interface. We have computed explicit
solutions with cylindrical symmetry and found the dispersion relation for small
symmetry-breaking perturbations in the case of finite resistivity. We implement
a numerical procedure to solve our model in general situations. As a result we
compute the dispersion relation for the cylindrical case and compare it with
the analytical predictions. Comparisons with experimental data for a 2-D
positive streamers discharge are provided and predictions confirmed.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure
Neural synchrony in cortical networks : history, concept and current status
Following the discovery of context-dependent synchronization of oscillatory neuronal responses in the visual system, the role of neural synchrony in cortical networks has been expanded to provide a general mechanism for the coordination of distributed neural activity patterns. In the current paper, we present an update of the status of this hypothesis through summarizing recent results from our laboratory that suggest important new insights regarding the mechanisms, function and relevance of this phenomenon. In the first part, we present recent results derived from animal experiments and mathematical simulations that provide novel explanations and mechanisms for zero and nero-zero phase lag synchronization. In the second part, we shall discuss the role of neural synchrony for expectancy during perceptual organization and its role in conscious experience. This will be followed by evidence that indicates that in addition to supporting conscious cognition, neural synchrony is abnormal in major brain disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. We conclude this paper with suggestions for further research as well as with critical issues that need to be addressed in future studies
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