8,447 research outputs found
Spike Clustering and Neuron Tracking over Successive Time Windows
This paper introduces a new methodology for tracking signals from individual neurons over time in multiunit extracellular recordings. The core of our strategy relies upon an extension of a traditional mixture model approach, with parameter optimization via expectation-maximimization (EM), to incorporate clustering results from the preceding time period in a Bayesian manner. EM initialization is also achieved by utilizing these prior clustering results. After clustering, we match the current and prior clusters to track persisting neurons. Applications of this spike sorting method to recordings from macaque parietal cortex show that it provides significantly more consistent clustering and tracking results
A Very Brief Introduction to Machine Learning With Applications to Communication Systems
Given the unprecedented availability of data and computing resources, there
is widespread renewed interest in applying data-driven machine learning methods
to problems for which the development of conventional engineering solutions is
challenged by modelling or algorithmic deficiencies. This tutorial-style paper
starts by addressing the questions of why and when such techniques can be
useful. It then provides a high-level introduction to the basics of supervised
and unsupervised learning. For both supervised and unsupervised learning,
exemplifying applications to communication networks are discussed by
distinguishing tasks carried out at the edge and at the cloud segments of the
network at different layers of the protocol stack
Improving Facial Analysis and Performance Driven Animation through Disentangling Identity and Expression
We present techniques for improving performance driven facial animation,
emotion recognition, and facial key-point or landmark prediction using learned
identity invariant representations. Established approaches to these problems
can work well if sufficient examples and labels for a particular identity are
available and factors of variation are highly controlled. However, labeled
examples of facial expressions, emotions and key-points for new individuals are
difficult and costly to obtain. In this paper we improve the ability of
techniques to generalize to new and unseen individuals by explicitly modeling
previously seen variations related to identity and expression. We use a
weakly-supervised approach in which identity labels are used to learn the
different factors of variation linked to identity separately from factors
related to expression. We show how probabilistic modeling of these sources of
variation allows one to learn identity-invariant representations for
expressions which can then be used to identity-normalize various procedures for
facial expression analysis and animation control. We also show how to extend
the widely used techniques of active appearance models and constrained local
models through replacing the underlying point distribution models which are
typically constructed using principal component analysis with
identity-expression factorized representations. We present a wide variety of
experiments in which we consistently improve performance on emotion
recognition, markerless performance-driven facial animation and facial
key-point tracking.Comment: to appear in Image and Vision Computing Journal (IMAVIS
Control of quantum phenomena: Past, present, and future
Quantum control is concerned with active manipulation of physical and
chemical processes on the atomic and molecular scale. This work presents a
perspective of progress in the field of control over quantum phenomena, tracing
the evolution of theoretical concepts and experimental methods from early
developments to the most recent advances. The current experimental successes
would be impossible without the development of intense femtosecond laser
sources and pulse shapers. The two most critical theoretical insights were (1)
realizing that ultrafast atomic and molecular dynamics can be controlled via
manipulation of quantum interferences and (2) understanding that optimally
shaped ultrafast laser pulses are the most effective means for producing the
desired quantum interference patterns in the controlled system. Finally, these
theoretical and experimental advances were brought together by the crucial
concept of adaptive feedback control, which is a laboratory procedure employing
measurement-driven, closed-loop optimization to identify the best shapes of
femtosecond laser control pulses for steering quantum dynamics towards the
desired objective. Optimization in adaptive feedback control experiments is
guided by a learning algorithm, with stochastic methods proving to be
especially effective. Adaptive feedback control of quantum phenomena has found
numerous applications in many areas of the physical and chemical sciences, and
this paper reviews the extensive experiments. Other subjects discussed include
quantum optimal control theory, quantum control landscapes, the role of
theoretical control designs in experimental realizations, and real-time quantum
feedback control. The paper concludes with a prospective of open research
directions that are likely to attract significant attention in the future.Comment: Review article, final version (significantly updated), 76 pages,
accepted for publication in New J. Phys. (Focus issue: Quantum control
Econometric Tests of Asset Price Bubbles: Taking Stock
Can asset price bubbles be detected? This survey of econometric tests of asset price bubbles shows that, despite recent advances, econometric detection of asset price bubbles cannot be achieved with a satisfactory degree of certainty. For each paper that finds evidence of bubbles, there is another one that fits the data equally well without allowing for a bubble. We are still unable to distinguish bubbles from time- varying or regime switching fundamentals, while many small sample econometrics problems of bubble tests remain unresolved.
Critical comments on EEG sensor space dynamical connectivity analysis
Many different analysis techniques have been developed and applied to EEG
recordings that allow one to investigate how different brain areas interact.
One particular class of methods, based on the linear parametric representation
of multiple interacting time series, is widely used to study causal
connectivity in the brain. However, the results obtained by these methods
should be interpreted with great care. The goal of this paper is to show, both
theoretically and using simulations, that results obtained by applying causal
connectivity measures on the sensor (scalp) time series do not allow
interpretation in terms of interacting brain sources. This is because 1) the
channel locations cannot be seen as an approximation of a source's anatomical
location and 2) spurious connectivity can occur between sensors. Although many
measures of causal connectivity derived from EEG sensor time series are
affected by the latter, here we will focus on the well-known time domain index
of Granger causality (GC) and on the frequency domain directed transfer
function (DTF). Using the state-space framework and designing two simulation
studies we show that mixing effects caused by volume conduction can lead to
spurious connections, detected either by time domain GC or by DTF. Therefore,
GC/DTF causal connectivity measures should be computed at the source level, or
derived within analysis frameworks that model the effects of volume conduction.
Since mixing effects can also occur in the source space, it is advised to
combine source space analysis with connectivity measures that are robust to
mixing
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