Change in hippocampal theta oscillation associated with multiple lever presses in a bimanual two-lever choice task for robot control in rats.

Hippocampal theta oscillations have been implicated in working memory and attentional process, which might be useful for the brain-machine interface (BMI). To further elucidate the properties of the hippocampal theta oscillations that can be used in BMI, we investigated hippocampal theta oscillations during a two-lever choice task. During the task body-restrained rats were trained with a food reward to move an e-puck robot towards them by pressing the correct lever, ipsilateral to the robot several times, using the ipsilateral forelimb. The robot carried food and moved along a semicircle track set in front of the rat. We demonstrated that the power of hippocampal theta oscillations gradually increased during a 6-s preparatory period before the start of multiple lever pressing, irrespective of whether the correct lever choice or forelimb side were used. In addition, there was a significant difference in the theta power after the first choice, between correct and incorrect trials. During the correct trials the theta power was highest during the first lever-releasing period, whereas in the incorrect trials it occurred during the second correct lever-pressing period. We also analyzed the hippocampal theta oscillations at the termination of multiple lever pressing during the correct trials. Irrespective of whether the correct forelimb side was used, the power of hippocampal theta oscillations gradually decreased with the termination of multiple lever pressing. The frequency of theta oscillation also demonstrated an increase and decrease, before and after multiple lever pressing, respectively. There was a transient increase in frequency after the first lever press during the incorrect trials, while no such increase was observed during the correct trials. These results suggested that hippocampal theta oscillations reflect some aspects of preparatory and cognitive neural activities during the robot controlling task, which could be used for BMI

The Challenges of the External Vote

UID/CPO/04627/2019Over the last few decades, emigrants all over the world have gained expanded voting rights. Despite the normative debates about this issue, there are few empirical studies on why states decide to implement external voting and how electoral systems perform. This chapter seeks to fill this gap by looking at the Portuguese case. Our study suggests that a combination of political and socio-economic factors explains the implementa tion of external voting. On the other hand, the interests of political parties and the low level of civil society engagement are key factors in the failure of both electoral reforms and attempts to overcome the shortcomings of external voting.publishersversionpublishe

Running of the top quark mass from proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

The running of the top quark mass is experimentally investigated for the first time. The mass of the top quark in the modified minimal subtraction \bar{MS} renormalization scheme is extracted from a comparison of the differential top quark-antiquark (t\bar{t}) cross section as a function of the invariant mass of the (t\bar{t}) system to next-to-leading-order theoretical predictions. The differential cross section is determined at the parton level by means of a maximum-likelihood fit to distributions of final-state observables. The analysis is performed using (t\bar{t}) candidate events in the e^{±} μ^{∓} channel in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb^{-1}. The extracted running is found to be compatible with the scale dependence predicted by the corresponding renormalization group equation. In this analysis, the running is probed up to a scale of the order of 1 TeV

Search for dijet resonances using events with three jets in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search for a narrow resonance with a mass between 350 and 700 GeV, and decaying into a pair of jets, is performed using proton-proton collision events containing at least three jets. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 18.3 fb^{−1} recorded at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with the CMS detector. Data are collected with a technique known as “data scouting”, in which the events are reconstructed, selected, and recorded at a high rate in a compact form by the high-level trigger. The three-jet final state provides sensitivity to lower resonance masses than in previous searches using the data scouting technique. The spectrum of the dijet invariant mass, calculated from the two jets with the largest transverse momenta in the event, is used to search for a resonance. No significant excess over a smoothly falling background is found. Limits at 95% confidence level are set on the production cross section of a narrow dijet resonance and compared with the cross section of a vector dark matter mediator coupling to dark matter particles and quarks. Translating to a model where the narrow resonance interacts only with quarks, upper limits on this coupling range between 0.10 and 0.15, depending on the resonance mass. These results represent the most stringent upper limits in the mass range between 350 and 450 GeV obtained with a flavor-inclusive dijet resonance search

Observation of the Λ_{b}^{0} → J/ψΛφ decay in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

The observation of the Λ_{b}^{0} → J/ψΛφ decay is reported using proton-proton collision data collected at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 60 fb^{-1}. The ratio of the branching fractions B(Λ_{b}^{0} → J/ψΛφ)/B(Λ_{b}^{0} → J/ψ(2s)Λ) is measured to be 8.26 ± 0.90(stat) ± 0.68 (syst) ± 0.11(B)) x 10^{-2}, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the last uncertainty reflects the uncertainties in the world-average branching fractions of φ and ψ(2s) decays to the reconstructed final states

Measurements of differential Z boson production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Measurements are presented of the differential cross sections for Z bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV and decaying to muons and electrons. The data analyzed were collected in 2016 with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb^{-1}. The measured fiducial inclusive product of cross section and branching fraction agrees with next-to-next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics calculations. Differential cross sections of the transverse momentum p_{T}, the optimized angular variable ϕ^{*}_{η}, and the rapidity of lepton pairs are measured. The data are corrected for detector effects and compared to theoretical predictions using fixed order, resummed, and parton shower calculations. The uncertainties of the measured normalized cross sections are smaller than 0.5% for ϕ^{*}_{η} < 0.5 and for p^{Z}_{T} < 50 GeV

Search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with 137 fb^{-1} in final states with a single lepton using the sum of masses of large-radius jets

Results are reported from a search for new physics beyond the standard model in proton-proton collisions in final states with a single lepton; multiple jets, including at least one jet tagged as originating from the hadronization of a bottom quark; and large missing transverse momentum. The search uses a sample of proton-proton collision data at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV, corresponding to 137 fb^{-1}, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The signal region is divided into categories characterized by the total number of jets, the number of bottom quark jets, the missing transverse momentum, and the sum of masses of large-radius jets. The observed event yields in the signal regions are consistent with estimates of standard model backgrounds based on event yields in the control regions. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of supersymmetry involving gluino pair production in which each gluino decays into a top quark-antiquark pair and a stable, unobserved neutralino, which generates missing transverse momentum in the event. Scenarios with gluino masses up to about 2150 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level (or more) for neutralino masses up to 700 GeV. The highest excluded neutralino mass is about 1250 GeV, which holds for gluino masses around 1850 GeV

Polarization and ideological congruence between parties and supporters in Europe

The relationship between parties and their supporters is central to democracy and ideological representation is among the most important of these linkages. We conduct an investigation of party-supporter congruence in Europe with emphasis on the measurement of ideology and focusing on the role of party system polarization, both as a direct factor in explaining congruence and in modifying the effects of voter sophistication. Understanding this relationship depends in part on how the ideology of parties and supporters is measured. We use Poole’s Blackbox scaling to derive a measure of latent ideology from voter and expert responses to issue scale questions and compare this to a measure based on left–right perceptions. We then examine how variation in the proximity between parties ideological positions and those of their supporters is affected by the polarization of the party system and how this relationship interacts with political sophistication. With the latent ideology measure, we find that polarization decreases party-supporter congruence but increases the effects of respondent education level on congruence. However, we do not find these relationships using the left–right perceptual measure. Our findings underscore important differences between perceptions of left–right labels and the ideological constraint underlying issue positions