Differentiating Sensitivity of Post-Stimulus Undershoot under Diffusion Weighting: Implication of Vascular and Neuronal Hierarchy

The widely used blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal during brain activation, as measured in typical fMRI methods, is composed of several distinct phases, the last of which, and perhaps the least understood, is the post-stimulus undershoot. Although this undershoot has been consistently observed, its hemodynamic and metabolic sources are still under debate, as evidences for sustained blood volume increases and metabolic activities have been presented. In order to help differentiate the origins of the undershoot from vascular and neuronal perspectives, we applied progressing diffusion weighting gradients to investigate the BOLD signals during visual stimulation. Three distinct regions were established and found to have fundamentally different properties in post-stimulus signal undershoot. The first region, with a small but focal spatial extent, shows a clear undershoot with decreasing magnitude under increasing diffusion weighting, which is inferred to represent intravascular signal from larger vessels with large apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC), or high mobility. The second region, with a large continuous spatial extent in which some surrounds the first region while some spreads beyond, also shows a clear undershoot but no change in undershoot amplitude with progressing diffusion weighting. This would indicate a source based on extravascular and small vessel signal with smaller ADC, or lower mobility. The third region shows no significant undershoot, and is largely confined to higher order visual areas. Given their intermediate ADC, it would likely include both large and small vessels. Thus the consistent observation of this third region would argue against a vascular origin but support a metabolic basis for the post-stimulus undershoot, and would appear to indicate a lack of sustained metabolic rate likely due to a lower oxygen metabolism in these higher visual areas. Our results are the first, to our knowledge, to suggest that the post-stimulus undershoots have a spatial dependence on the vascular and neuronal hierarchy, and that progressing flow-sensitized diffusion weighting can help delineate these dependences

Cortical and subcortical coordination of visual spatial attention revealed by simultaneous EEG-fMRI recording

Visual spatial attention has been studied in humans with both electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) individually. However, due to the intrinsic limitations of each of these methods used alone, our understanding of the systems-level mechanisms underlying attentional control remains limited. Here, we examined trial-to-trial covariations of concurrently recorded EEG and fMRI in a cued visual spatial attention task in humans, which allowed delineation of both the generators and modulators of the cue-triggered event-related oscillatory brain activity underlying attentional control function. The fMRI activity in visual cortical regions contralateral to the cued direction of attention covaried positively with occipital gamma-band EEG, consistent with activation of cortical regions representing attended locations in space. In contrast, fMRI activity in ipsilateral visual cortical regions covaried inversely with occipital alpha-band oscillations, consistent with attention-related suppression of the irrelevant hemispace. Moreover, the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus covaried with both of these spatially specific, attention-related, oscillatory EEG modulations. Because the pulvinar's neuroanatomical geometry makes it unlikely to be a direct generator of the scalp-recorded EEG, these covariational patterns appear to reflect the pulvinar's role as a regulatory control structure, sending spatially specific signals to modulate visual cortex excitability proactively. Together, these combined EEG/fMRI results illuminate the dynamically interacting cortical and subcortical processes underlying spatial attention, providing important insight not realizable using either method alone

A limit on the detectability of the energy scale of inflation

We show that the polarization of the cosmic microwave background can be used to detect gravity waves from inflation if the energy scale of inflation is above 3.2 times 10^15 GeV. These gravity waves generate polarization patterns with a curl, whereas (to first order in perturbation theory) density perturbations do not. The limiting ``noise'' arises from the second--order generation of curl from density perturbations, or rather residuals from its subtraction. We calculate optimal sky coverage and detectability limits as a function of detector sensitivity and observing time.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Experimental and computational characterization of a modified GEC cell for dusty plasma experiments

A self-consistent fluid model developed for simulations of micro- gravity dusty plasma experiments has for the first time been used to model asymmetric dusty plasma experiments in a modified GEC reference cell with gravity. The numerical results are directly compared with experimental data and the experimentally determined dependence of global discharge parameters on the applied driving potential and neutral gas pressure is found to be well matched by the model. The local profiles important for dust particle transport are studied and compared with experimentally determined profiles. The radial forces in the midplane are presented for the different discharge settings. The differences between the results obtained in the modified GEC cell and the results first reported for the original GEC reference cell are pointed out

A combined measurement of cosmic growth and expansion from clusters of galaxies, the CMB and galaxy clustering

Combining galaxy cluster data from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, cosmic microwave background data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, and galaxy clustering data from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey, the 6-degree Field Galaxy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, we test for consistency the cosmic growth of structure predicted by General Relativity (GR) and the cosmic expansion history predicted by the cosmological constant plus cold dark matter paradigm (LCDM). The combination of these three independent, well studied measurements of the evolution of the mean energy density and its fluctuations is able to break strong degeneracies between model parameters. We model the key properties of cosmic growth with the normalization of the matter power spectrum, sigma_8, and the cosmic growth index, gamma, and those of cosmic expansion with the mean matter density, Omega_m, the Hubble constant, H_0, and a kinematical parameter equivalent to that for the dark energy equation of state, w. For a spatially flat geometry, w=-1, and allowing for systematic uncertainties, we obtain sigma_8=0.785+-0.019 and gamma=0.570+0.064-0.063 (at the 68.3 per cent confidence level). Allowing both w and gamma to vary we find w=-0.950+0.069-0.070 and gamma=0.533+-0.080. To further tighten the constraints on the expansion parameters, we also include supernova, Cepheid variable and baryon acoustic oscillation data. For w=-1, we have gamma=0.616+-0.061. For our most general model with a free w, we measure Omega_m=0.278+0.012-0.011, H_0=70.0+-1.3 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 and w=-0.987+0.054-0.053 for the expansion parameters, and sigma_8=0.789+-0.019 and gamma=0.604+-0.078 for the growth parameters. These results are in excellent agreement with GR+LCDM (gamma~0.55; w=-1) and represent the tightest and most robust simultaneous constraint on cosmic growth and expansion to date.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Matches the accepted version for MNRAS. New sections 3 and 6 added, containing 2 new figures. Table extended. The results including BAO data have been slightly modified due to an updated BAO analysis. Conclusions unchange

Thermodynamics of 4,4 '-stilbenedicarboxylic acid monolayer self-assembly at the nonanoic acid-graphite interface

A direct calorimetric measurement of the overall enthalpy change associated with self-assembly of organic monolayers at the liquid–solid interface is for most systems of interest practically impossible. In previous work we proposed an adapted Born–Haber cycle for an indirect assessment of the overall enthalpy change by using terephthalic acid monolayers at the nonanoic acid–graphite interface as a model system. To this end, the sublimation enthalpy, dissolution enthalpy, the monolayer binding enthalpy in vacuum, and a dewetting enthalpy are combined to yield the total enthalpy change. In the present study the Born–Haber cycle is applied to 4,40 -stilbenedicarboxylic acid monolayers. A detailed comparison of these two aromatic dicarboxylic acids is used to evaluate and quantify the contribution of the organic backbone for stabilization of the monolayer at the nonanoic acid–graphite interface

Experimental GHZ Entanglement beyond Qubits

The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) argument provides an all-or-nothing contradiction between quantum mechanics and local-realistic theories. In its original formulation, GHZ investigated three and four particles entangled in two dimensions only. Very recently, higher dimensional contradictions especially in three dimensions and three particles have been discovered but it has remained unclear how to produce such states. In this article we experimentally show how to generate a three-dimensional GHZ state from two-photon orbital-angular-momentum entanglement. The first suggestion for a setup which generates three-dimensional GHZ entanglement from these entangled pairs came from using the computer algorithm Melvin. The procedure employs novel concepts significantly beyond the qubit case. Our experiment opens up the possibility of a truly high-dimensional test of the GHZ-contradiction which, interestingly, employs non-Hermitian operators.Comment: 6+6 pages, 8 figure