Construction of direction selectivity in V1: from simple to complex cells

Despite detailed knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of the primary visual cortex (V1), the immense number of feed-forward and recurrent connections onto a given V1 neuron make it difficult to understand how the physiological details relate to a given neuron’s functional properties. Here, we focus on a well-known functional property of many V1 complex cells: phase-invariant direction selectivity (DS). While the energy model explains its construction at the conceptual level, it remains unclear how the mathematical operations described in this model are implemented by cortical circuits. To understand how DS of complex cells is constructed in cortex, we apply a nonlinear modeling framework to extracellular data from macaque V1. We use a modification of spike-triggered covariance (STC) analysis to identify multiple biologically plausible "spatiotemporal features" that either excite or suppress a cell. We demonstrate that these features represent the true inputs to the neuron more accurately, and the resulting nonlinear model compactly describes how these inputs are combined to result in the functional properties of the cell. In a population of 59 neurons, we find that both simple and complex V1 cells are selective to combinations of excitatory and suppressive motion features. Because the strength of DS and simple/complex classification is well predicted by our models, we can use simulations with inputs matching thalamic and simple cells to assess how individual model components contribute to these measures. Our results unify experimental observations regarding the construction of DS from thalamic feed-forward inputs to V1: based on the differences between excitatory and inhibitory inputs, they suggest a connectivity diagram for simple and complex cells that sheds light on the mechanism underlying the DS of cortical cells. More generally, they illustrate how stage-wise nonlinear combination of multiple features gives rise to the processing of more abstract visual information

Investigating Dimensions of Trust in Public Discussions of Diabetes Led by Certified Diabetes Educators

The givens of “trust” and “credibility” are often glossed over in research concerning the efficacy of community-based approaches to health issues. This research focuses on one type of community intervention aimed at increasing citizens’ interest in acting to address diabetes: a series of community discussions led by Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs). We take a critical discourse analysis approach to answering several questions including: How does the discourse between CDEs and participants work to establish or hinder the CDEs’ credibility

Dynamik der atmosphärischen Grenzschicht über der Stadt – erste Ergebnisse der Wind-LIDAR-Messungen am Leipziger Institut für Meteorologie

Seit 2015 gibt es Doppler-LIDAR-Messungen der Windgeschwindigkeit über Leipzig. Diese Messungen werden zum einen vom HALO Photonics Streamline Doppler-LIDAR am Leipziger Institut für Troposphärenforschung (TROPOS) sowie vom Leosphere Windcube 8 Doppler-LIDAR am Leipziger Institut für Meteorologie (LIM) aufgenommen. In dieser Arbeit werden insbesondere die Daten des Windcubes bezüglich der horizontalen Windgeschwindigkeit, der Windrichtung und der Turbulenzintensität bis in eine Höhe von ca. 500 m ausgewertet. Der Vergleich mit dem HALO Photonics Streamline Doppler-LIDAR zeigt gute Korrelationen zwischen beiden Geräten. Die Ergebnisse beinhalten unter anderem eine gute Übereinstimmung mit der Ekman-Theorie. Auch die erhöhte Rauhigkeit der Stadtfläche gegenüber dem ländlichen Raum wird in der Auswertung deutlich. Es wurde ein Verfahren getestet, das es erlaubt, den turbulenten Diffusionskoeffizienten und die aerodynamische Rauhigkeitslänge aus den Messwerten abzuleiten und erste Abschätzungen dieser Größen vorzunehmen. Diese Arbeit legt nahe, den Einsatz der Fernerkundungsmessung zur Bestimmung der urbanen Grenzschichtdynamik fortzusetzen und wenn möglich zu erweitern.Since 2015 Doppler-LIDAR measurements above Leipzig are available. The Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) operates a HALO Photonics Streamline Doppler-LIDAR while the Institute of Meteorology Leipzig uses a Leosphere Windcube 8 Doppler-LIDAR. In this study mainly meausrements of the Windcube for horizontal wind velocity, wind direction and turbulence intensity below 500 m are evaluated. The comparison to the HALO Photonics Streamline LIDAR shows good correlations between both devices. Among others, the results include good agreements with the Ekman theory. Additionally the increased roughness of the city surface compared to rural areas becomes apparent. A way to determine characteristic quantities like the turbulent diffusion coefficient and the aerodynamic roughness length is described and initial estimations were conducted. This study suggests to continue and if possible expand such remote sensing measurements for analyses of urban boundary layer dynamics

Animal production in different integrated crop-livestock systems in a lowland of Southern Brazil.

To achieve higher lowland use efficiency in Brazilian Southern, a region commonly used for rice production, the livestock activity during the winter period (in succession to summer crops) is a sustainable alternative..

Observation of the hyperfine transition in lithium-like Bismuth 209Bi80+^{209}\text{Bi}^{80+}: Towards a test of QED in strong magnetic fields

We performed a laser spectroscopic determination of the $2s$ hyperfine splitting (HFS) of Li-like $^{209}\text{Bi}^{80+}$ and repeated the measurement of the $1s$ HFS of H-like $^{209}\text{Bi}^{82+}$. Both ion species were subsequently stored in the Experimental Storage Ring at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum f\"ur Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt and cooled with an electron cooler at a velocity of $\approx 0.71\,c$. Pulsed laser excitation of the $M1$ hyperfine-transition was performed in anticollinear and collinear geometry for $\text{Bi}^{82+}$ and $\text{Bi}^{80+}$, respectively, and observed by fluorescence detection. We obtain $\Delta E^{(1s)}= 5086.3(11)\,\textrm{meV}$ for $\text{Bi}^{82+}$, different from the literature value, and $\Delta E^{(2s)}= 797.50(18)\,\textrm{meV}$ for $\text{Bi}^{80+}$. These values provide experimental evidence that a specific difference between the two splitting energies can be used to test QED calculations in the strongest static magnetic fields available in the laboratory independent of nuclear structure effects. The experimental result is in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction and confirms the sum of the Dirac term and the relativistic interelectronic-interaction correction at a level of 0.5% confirming the importance of accounting for the Breit interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Implementation of different integrated crop-livestock systems in lowlands of Southern Brazil: an animal production approach.

The introduction of integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) is an alternative to rice monoculture in lowlands of Southern Brazil..

Braided racks, Hurwitz actions and Nichols algebras with many cubic relations

We classify Nichols algebras of irreducible Yetter-Drinfeld modules over groups such that the underlying rack is braided and the homogeneous component of degree three of the Nichols algebra satisfies a given inequality. This assumption turns out to be equivalent to a factorization assumption on the Hilbert series. Besides the known Nichols algebras we obtain a new example. Our method is based on a combinatorial invariant of the Hurwitz orbits with respect to the action of the braid group on three strands.Comment: v2: 35 pages, 6 tables, 14 figure

Treatment of backscattering in a gas of interacting fermions confined to a one-dimensional harmonic atom trap

An asymptotically exact many body theory for spin polarized interacting fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic atom trap is developed using the bosonization method and including backward scattering. In contrast to the Luttinger model, backscattering in the trap generates one-particle potentials which must be diagonalized simultaneously with the two-body interactions. Inclusion of backscattering becomes necessary because backscattering is the dominant interaction process between confined identical one-dimensional fermions. The bosonization method is applied to the calculation of one-particle matrix elements at zero temperature. A detailed discussion of the validity of the results from bosonization is given, including a comparison with direct numerical diagonalization in fermionic Hilbert space. A model for the interaction coefficients is developed along the lines of the Luttinger model with only one coupling constant $K$. With these results, particle densities, the Wigner function, and the central pair correlation function are calculated and displayed for large fermion numbers. It is shown how interactions modify these quantities. The anomalous dimension of the pair correlation function in the center of the trap is also discussed and found to be in accord with the Luttinger model.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, journal-ref adde