270 research outputs found
Temporal encoding, precision, and coordination in a comprehensive, spike-resolved motor program
Animals must execute robust, agile movement in a variety of biomechanical and environmental contexts. The nervous system must encode information for movement across multiple muscles in the "all-or-none" messages of action potentials. Sequences of action potentials, or spikes, can carry information in the number of spikes and their timing. Spike timing codes are critical in many sensory systems, but there is now growing evidence that millisecond-scale changes in timing also carry information in motor brain regions, descending decision-making circuits, and individual motor units. However, a thorough investigation of the importance of spike timing at the millisecond-scale for encoding information, coordinating muscles, and causally changing motor behavior would require recording a comprehensive, spike-resolved motor program across a complete set of muscles that actuate a behavior.
This work leverages the comprehensive, spike-resolved motor program of a hawk moth to demonstrate that the currency of motor control is millisecond-scale precise spike timings. In Chapter 2, we show that across the ten muscles that control the wings during flight, spike timing encodes more information about yaw torque than spike rate, and that spike timing encodes all coordinated information between pairs of muscles, despite there being sufficient bandwidth to encode the information in spike rate. In Chapter 3, we introduce a method to assess the necessary spike timing precision to encode information about behavior. In the comprehensive motor program of the hawk moth, the information encoded in spikes is precise to the millisecond or sub-millisecond scale, losing information when noise is added to spikes that exceeds several milliseconds. In Chapter 4, we demonstrate through classification that the motor program we record is indeed comprehensive, capable of near perfect classification of six types of behavior elicited in response to drifting visual stimuli as long as millisecond-scale information about spikes is available. Additionally, we demonstrate consistency in how muscles are coordinated across different types of behavior, though functionally different spiking activity occurs. Finally, in Chapter 5, we investigate specific precise spike timing differences observed in the six behavior types to demonstrate causality of millisecond-scale spike timing for behavior.Ph.D
Cyber-Human Systems, Space Technologies, and Threats
CYBER-HUMAN SYSTEMS, SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, AND THREATS is our eighth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs / CUAS/ UUVs / SPACE. Other textbooks in our series are Space Systems Emerging Technologies and Operations; Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD); Disruptive Technologies with applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries; Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land; Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations; Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition. Our previous seven titles have received considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols & Carter, 2022) (Nichols, et al., 2021) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2022)https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1052/thumbnail.jp
Information Communication Technology for Crisis Management and Shared Situational Awareness: Social Media Public Health Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This comprehensive study analyzes the role of social media, specifically Facebook, in crisis
communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted through a longitudinal netnography
approach, the research scrutinizes the communication strategies of Australian public health agencies
from 2019 to 2020 and their impact on shared situational awareness (SSA).
Drawing on the Seppänen et al. (2013) model for crisis communication, the study looks at three key
aspects - link content (information), link type (communication), and link quality (trust) - and evaluates
how they influence SSA during a crisis. The application of Chaos Theory further enhances the
research's depth by identifying patterns and transformations in Facebook communications before and
after the COVID-19 disruption.
The study reveals that the pandemic significantly disrupted typical health communication strategies,
leading to new emergent patterns, and it also underscores the critical role of secondary
communication and emotional factors in the public's decision to share crisis information.
Moreover, it identifies issues such as misinformation and inconsistency in messaging as significant
obstacles to the public's trust in official health communications, ultimately impeding the creation of
adequate SSA. The research emphasizes the need to develop consistent, clear, and reliable
messaging strategies for effective crisis communication.
The findings expand existing knowledge on social media utilization in crisis communication, offering
valuable insights to enhance public health agencies' communication strategies, thereby aiding in the
creation of trusted SSA. Unlike prior studies focusing on crisis response teams, this research
concentrates on shared situational awareness among the general public, providing practical
recommendations to improve social media crisis communication for more effective response and
management in a health crisis
Jampa\u27s Worldly Dharmas
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/hmvla_jampa/1007/thumbnail.jp
Complex Terrain
This edited volume, composed by military professionals in the Gray Scholars Program at Marine Corps University, describes the changing character of urban operations. The pattern of human settlement and interaction is changing and the future is urban. Because the majority of the world’s population lives within cities, the future of strategic competition and conflict reside there as well. The density and connectivity of urban environments create a new type of complex terrain. Interests change from neighborhood to neighborhood, often intersecting global, political, and economic networks. Each city block sees shifting allegiances that often seem unclear from the outside. The cityscape compresses time and space while increasing uncertainty and complicating the conduct of military operations
Implementing machine ethics: using machine learning to raise ethical machines
As more decisions and tasks are delegated to the artificially intelligent machines of the 21st century, we must ensure that these machines are, on their own, able to engage in ethical decision-making and behaviour. This dissertation makes the case that bottom-up reinforcement learning methods are the best suited for implementing machine ethics by raising ethical machines. This is one of three main theses in this dissertation, that we must seriously consider how machines themselves, as moral agents that can impact human well-being and flourishing, might make ethically preferable decisions and take ethically preferable actions. The second thesis is that artificially intelligent machines are different in kind from all previous machines. The conjunction of autonomy and intelligence, among other unique features like the ability to learn and their general-purpose nature, is what sets artificially intelligent machines apart from all previous machines and tools. The third thesis concerns the limitations of artificially intelligent machines. As impressive as these machines are, their abilities are still derived from humans and as such lack the sort of normative commitments humans have. In short, we ought to care deeply about artificially intelligent machines, especially those used in times and places when considered human judgment is required, because we risk lapsing into a state of moral complacency otherwise
Supercomputing Frontiers
This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th Asian Conference Supercomputing Conference, SCFA 2022, which took place in Singapore in March 2022. The 8 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 21 submissions. They cover a range of topics including file systems, memory hierarchy, HPC cloud platform, container image configuration workflow, large-scale applications, and scheduling
5 European & African Conference on Wind Engineering
The 5th European-African Conference of Wind Engineering is hosted in Florence, Tuscany, the city and the region where, in the early 15th century, pioneers moved the first steps, laying down the foundation stones of Mechanics and Applied Sciences (including fluid mechanics). These origins are well reflected by the astonishing visionary and revolutionary studies of Leonardo Da Vinci, whose kaleidoscopic genius intended the human being to become able to fly even 500 years ago… This is why the Organising Committee has decided to pay tribute to such a Genius by choosing Leonardo's "flying sphere" as the brand of 5th EACWE
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