85 research outputs found
Homeostatic Modulation of Stimulation-Dependent Plasticity in Human Motor Cortex
Since recently, it is possible, using noninvasive cortical stimulation, such as the protocol of paired associative stimulation (PAS), to induce the plastic changes in the motor cortex, in humans that mimic Hebb's model of learning. Application of TMS conjugated with peripheral electrical stimulation at strictly coherent temporal manner lead to convergence of inputs in the sensory-motor cortex, with the consequent synaptic potentiation or weakening, if applied repetitively. However, when optimal interstimulus interval (ISI) for induction of LTP-like effects is applied as a single pair, Motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude inhibition is observed, the paradigm known as short-latency afferent inhibition (SLAI). Aiming to resolve this paradox, PAS protocols were applied, with 200 repetitions of TMS pulses paired with median nerve electrical stimulation, at ISI equal to individual latencies of evoked response of somatosensory cortex (N-20) (PASLTP), and at ISI of N-20 shortened for 5 msec (PASLTD) protocols that mimic LTP-like changes in the human motor cortex. MEP amplitudes before, during and after interventions were measured as an indicator based on output signals originating from the motor system. Post-intervention MEP amplitudes following the TMS protocols of PASLTP and PASLTD were facilitated and depressed, respectively, contrary to MEP amplitudes during intervention. During PASLTP MEP amplitudes were significantly decreased in case of PASLTP, while in the case of PASLTD an upward trend was observed. In conclusions, a possible explanation for the seemingly paradoxical effect of PAS can be found in the mechanism of homeostatic modulation of plasticity. Those findings indicate the existence of complex relationships in the development of plasticity induced by stimulation, depending on the level of the previous motor cortex excitability
Ressecção ampla e transposição fibular no tratamento do TCG da extremidade distal do rádio
Superfluid transport of information in turning flocks of starlings
Collective decision-making in biological systems requires all individuals in
the group to go through a behavioural change of state. During this transition,
the efficiency of information transport is a key factor to prevent cohesion
loss and preserve robustness. The precise mechanism by which natural groups
achieve such efficiency, though, is currently not fully understood. Here, we
present an experimental study of starling flocks performing collective turns in
the field. We find that the information to change direction propagates across
the flock linearly in time with negligible attenuation, hence keeping group
decoherence to a minimum. This result contrasts with current theories of
collective motion, which predict a slower and dissipative transport of
directional information. We propose a novel theory whose cornerstone is the
existence of a conserved spin current generated by the gauge symmetry of the
system. The theory turns out to be mathematically identical to that of
superfluid transport in liquid helium and it explains the dissipationless
propagating mode observed in turning flocks. Superfluidity also provides a
quantitative expression for the speed of propagation of the information,
according to which transport must be swifter the stronger the group's
orientational order. This prediction is verified by the data. We argue that the
link between strong order and efficient decision-making required by
superfluidity may be the adaptive drive for the high degree of behavioural
polarization observed in many living groups. The mathematical equivalence
between superfluid liquids and turning flocks is a compelling demonstration of
the far-reaching consequences of symmetry and conservation laws across
different natural systems
The Biomolecular Interaction Network Database and related tools 2005 update
The Biomolecular Interaction Network Database (BIND) (http://bind.ca) archives biomolecular interaction, reaction, complex and pathway information. Our aim is to curate the details about molecular interactions that arise from published experimental research and to provide this information, as well as tools to enable data analysis, freely to researchers worldwide. BIND data are curated into a comprehensive machine-readable archive of computable information and provides users with methods to discover interactions and molecular mechanisms. BIND has worked to develop new methods for visualization that amplify the underlying annotation of genes and proteins to facilitate the study of molecular interaction networks. BIND has maintained an open database policy since its inception in 1999. Data growth has proceeded at a tremendous rate, approaching over 100 000 records. New services provided include a new BIND Query and Submission interface, a Standard Object Access Protocol service and the Small Molecule Interaction Database (http://smid.blueprint.org) that allows users to determine probable small molecule binding sites of new sequences and examine conserved binding residues
Some Causes of the Variable Shape of Flocks of Birds
Flocks of birds are highly variable in shape in all contexts (while travelling, avoiding predation, wheeling above the roost). Particularly amazing in this respect are the aerial displays of huge flocks of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) above the sleeping site at dawn. The causes of this variability are hardly known, however. Here we hypothesise that variability of shape increases when there are larger local differences in movement behaviour in the flock. We investigate this hypothesis with the help of a model of the self-organisation of travelling groups, called StarDisplay, since such a model has also increased our understanding of what causes the oblong shape of schools of fish. The flocking patterns in the model prove to resemble those of real birds, in particular of starlings and rock doves. As to shape, we measure the relative proportions of the flock in several ways, which either depend on the direction of movement or do not. We confirm that flock shape is usually more variable when local differences in movement in the flock are larger. This happens when a) flock size is larger, b) interacting partners are fewer, c) the flock turnings are stronger, and d) individuals roll into the turn. In contrast to our expectations, when variability of speed in the flock is higher, flock shape and the positions of members in the flock are more static. We explain this and indicate the adaptive value of low variability of speed and spatial restriction of interaction and develop testable hypotheses
Incidental sounds of locomotion in animal cognition
The highly synchronized formations that characterize schooling in fish and the flight of certain bird groups have frequently been explained as reducing energy expenditure. I present an alternative, or complimentary, hypothesis that synchronization of group movements may improve hearing perception. Although incidental sounds produced as a by-product of locomotion (ISOL) will be an almost constant presence to most animals, the impact on perception and cognition has been little discussed. A consequence of ISOL may be masking of critical sound signals in the surroundings. Birds in flight may generate significant noise; some produce wing beats that are readily heard on the ground at some distance from the source. Synchronization of group movements might reduce auditory masking through periods of relative silence and facilitate auditory grouping processes. Respiratory locomotor coupling and intermittent flight may be other means of reducing masking and improving hearing perception. A distinct border between ISOL and communicative signals is difficult to delineate. ISOL seems to be used by schooling fish as an aid to staying in formation and avoiding collisions. Bird and bat flocks may use ISOL in an analogous way. ISOL and interaction with animal perception, cognition, and synchronized behavior provide an interesting area for future study
Sieve-based relation extraction of gene regulatory networks from biological literature
The CHEMDNER corpus of chemicals and drugs and its annotation principles
The automatic extraction of chemical information from text requires the recognition of chemical entity mentions as one
of its key steps. When developing supervised named entity recognition (NER) systems, the availability of a large,
manually annotated text corpus is desirable. Furthermore, large corpora permit the robust evaluation and comparison
of different approaches that detect chemicals in documents. We present the CHEMDNER corpus, a collection of 10,000
PubMed abstracts that contain a total of 84,355 chemical entity mentions labeled manually by expert chemistry
literature curators, following annotation guidelines specifically defined for this task. The abstracts of the CHEMDNER
corpus were selected to be representative for all major chemical disciplines. Each of the chemical entity mentions was
manually labeled according to its structure-associated chemical entity mention (SACEM) class: abbreviation, family,
formula, identifier, multiple, systematic and trivial. The difficulty and consistency of tagging chemicals in text was
measured using an agreement study between annotators, obtaining a percentage agreement of 91. For a subset of the
CHEMDNER corpus (the test set of 3,000 abstracts) we provide not only the Gold Standard manual annotations, but also
mentions automatically detected by the 26 teams that participated in the BioCreative IV CHEMDNER chemical mention
recognition task. In addition, we release the CHEMDNER silver standard corpus of automatically extracted mentions
from 17,000 randomly selected PubMed abstracts. A version of the CHEMDNER corpus in the BioC format has been
generated as well. We propose a standard for required minimum information about entity annotations for the
construction of domain specific corpora on chemical and drug entities. The CHEMDNER corpus and annotation
guidelines are available at: http://www.biocreative.org/resources/biocreative-iv/chemdner-corpus
Business service integration using pattern composition
Smooth integration of services is one of the key benefits of service- oriented enterprises. But the key questions are “Does the selected service address the real business need?” and “How to select the right service?”. Separating the business choices and technical choices is necessary in order to structure the solution to these questions. In this research, the two perspectives are handled by embedding service thinking at business level design and secondly, by supporting the integration with available services and process templates. To reach this combined goal, we present a pattern-based approach for business service integration
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