4,705 research outputs found
Reclaiming human machine nature
Extending and modifying his domain of life by artifact production is one of
the main characteristics of humankind. From the first hominid, who used a wood
stick or a stone for extending his upper limbs and augmenting his gesture
strength, to current systems engineers who used technologies for augmenting
human cognition, perception and action, extending human body capabilities
remains a big issue. From more than fifty years cybernetics, computer and
cognitive sciences have imposed only one reductionist model of human machine
systems: cognitive systems. Inspired by philosophy, behaviorist psychology and
the information treatment metaphor, the cognitive system paradigm requires a
function view and a functional analysis in human systems design process.
According that design approach, human have been reduced to his metaphysical and
functional properties in a new dualism. Human body requirements have been left
to physical ergonomics or "physiology". With multidisciplinary convergence, the
issues of "human-machine" systems and "human artifacts" evolve. The loss of
biological and social boundaries between human organisms and interactive and
informational physical artifact questions the current engineering methods and
ergonomic design of cognitive systems. New developpment of human machine
systems for intensive care, human space activities or bio-engineering sytems
requires grounding human systems design on a renewed epistemological framework
for future human systems model and evidence based "bio-engineering". In that
context, reclaiming human factors, augmented human and human machine nature is
a necessityComment: Published in HCI International 2014, Heraklion : Greece (2014
Two Amino Acid Residues Contribute to a Cation-Ï€ Binding Interaction in the Binding Site of an Insect GABA Receptor
Cys-loop receptor binding sites characteristically possess an "aromatic box," where several aromatic amino acid residues surround the bound ligand. A cation-Ï€ interaction between one of these residues and the natural agonist is common, although the residue type and location are not conserved. Even in the closely related vertebrate GABA_A and GABA_C receptors, residues in distinct locations perform this role: in GABA_A receptors, a Tyr residue in loop A forms a cation-Ï€ interaction with GABA, while in GABA_C receptors it is a loop B residue. GABA-activated Cys-loop receptors also exist in invertebrates, where they have distinct pharmacologies and are the target of a range of pesticides. Here we examine the location of GABA in an insect binding site by incorporating a series of fluorinated Phe derivatives into the receptor binding pocket using unnatural amino acid mutagenesis, and evaluating the resulting receptors when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. A homology model suggests that two aromatic residues (in loops B and C) are positioned such that they could contribute to a cation-Ï€ interaction with the primary ammonium of GABA, and the data reveal a clear correlation between the GABA EC_(50) and the cation-Ï€ binding ability both at Phe206 (loop B) and Tyr254 (loop C), demonstrating for the first time the contribution of two aromatic residues to a cation-Ï€ interaction in a Cys-loop receptor
Quantifying Self-Organization with Optimal Predictors
Despite broad interest in self-organizing systems, there are few
quantitative, experimentally-applicable criteria for self-organization. The
existing criteria all give counter-intuitive results for important cases. In
this Letter, we propose a new criterion, namely an internally-generated
increase in the statistical complexity, the amount of information required for
optimal prediction of the system's dynamics. We precisely define this
complexity for spatially-extended dynamical systems, using the probabilistic
ideas of mutual information and minimal sufficient statistics. This leads to a
general method for predicting such systems, and a simple algorithm for
estimating statistical complexity. The results of applying this algorithm to a
class of models of excitable media (cyclic cellular automata) strongly support
our proposal.Comment: Four pages, two color figure
The Active Nucleus of IC4970: A Nearby Example of Merger-Induced Cold-Gas Accretion
We present results from Chandra X-ray and Spitzer mid-infrared observations
of the interacting galaxy pair NGC6872/IC4970 in the Pavo galaxy group and show
that the smaller companion galaxy IC4970 hosts a highly obscured active
galactic nucleus (AGN). The 0.5-10 keV X-ray luminosity of the nucleus is
variable, increasing by a factor 2.9 to 1.7 x 10^{42} erg/s (bright state) on
~100 ks timescales. The X-ray spectrum of the is heavily absorbed (N_H = 3 x
10^{23} cm^{-2}) for power law models with Gamma = 1.5-2.0 and shows a clear
6.4 keV Fe Kalpha line with equivalent width of 144-195 eV. Limits on the
diffuse emission in IC4970 from Chandra X-ray data suggest that the available
power from Bondi accretion of hot interstellar gas may be an order of magnitude
too small to power the AGN. Spitzer images show that 8 micron nonstellar
emission is concentrated in the central 1 kpc of IC4970, consistent with high
obscuration in this region. The mid-infrared colors of the nucleus are
consistent with those expected for a highly obscured AGN. Taken together these
data suggest that the nucleus of IC4970 is a Seyfert 2, triggered and fueled by
cold material supplied to the central supermassive black hole as a result of
the off-axis collision of IC4970 with the cold-gas rich spiral galaxy NGC6872.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ, MIR flux conversion error
corrected in Table 4, MIR colors and paper text unchange
Mid-infrared Identification of 6 cm Radio Source Counterparts in the Extended Groth Strip
A new 6-cm survey of almost 0.6 square degrees to a limit of 0.55-mJy/beam
(10-sigma) finds 37 isolated radio sources and 7 radio source pairs (not
necessarily physical companions). IRAC counterparts are identified for at least
92% of the radio sources within the area of deep IRAC coverage, which includes
31 isolated sources and 6 pairs. This contrasts with an identification rate of
<74% to R<23.95 in visible light. Eight of the IRAC galaxies have power law
spectral energy distributions, implying that the mid-infrared emission comes
from a powerful AGN. The remaining 26 IRAC galaxies show stellar emission in
the mid-infrared, probably in most of these galaxies because the stellar
emission is bright enough to outshine an underlying AGN. The infrared colors
suggest that the majority of these galaxies are bulge-dominated and have
redshifts between approximately 0.5 and 1.0. Visible spectra from the DEEP2
redshift survey, available for 11 galaxies, are consistent with this
suggestion. The IRAC galaxies fall into two distinct groups in a
color-magnitude diagram, one group (the "stripe") includes all the AGN. The
other group (the "blue clump") has blue 3.6 to 8 micron colors and a small
range of 8 micron magnitudes. This separation should be useful in classifying
galaxies found in other radio surveys.Comment: Accepted by A
Star formation in z>1 3CR host galaxies as seen by Herschel
We present Herschel (PACS and SPIRE) far-infrared (FIR) photometry of a
complete sample of z>1 3CR sources, from the Herschel GT project The Herschel
Legacy of distant radio-loud AGN (PI: Barthel). Combining these with existing
Spitzer photometric data, we perform an infrared (IR) spectral energy
distribution (SED) analysis of these landmark objects in extragalactic research
to study the star formation in the hosts of some of the brightest active
galactic nuclei (AGN) known at any epoch. Accounting for the contribution from
an AGN-powered warm dust component to the IR SED, about 40% of our objects
undergo episodes of prodigious, ULIRG-strength star formation, with rates of
hundreds of solar masses per year, coeval with the growth of the central
supermassive black hole. Median SEDs imply that the quasar and radio galaxy
hosts have similar FIR properties, in agreement with the orientation-based
unification for radio-loud AGN. The star-forming properties of the AGN hosts
are similar to those of the general population of equally massive non-AGN
galaxies at comparable redshifts, thus there is no strong evidence of universal
quenching of star formation (negative feedback) within this sample. Massive
galaxies at high redshift may be forming stars prodigiously, regardless of
whether their supermassive black holes are accreting or not.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
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