Towards a theory of sleep onset and insomnia that considers conative, affective and cognitive processes, and from which treatments are derived

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A test of the somnolent mentation theory and the cognitive shuffle insomnia treatment

Insomnia affects about 33% of Americans according to Harvey & Tang (2003) who called for new cognitive treatments. We will report preliminary results from a test of (a) the Somnolent Mentation theory (SMT) of sleep onset (SO) and (b) a new cognitive treatment for insomnia, the cognitive shuffle (CS), derived from the SMT (Beaudoin, 2013, 2014). According to SMT, incoherent mentation characteristic of SO is not merely a side-effect of the SO period but promotes it, meaning it is somnolent. The SMT identifies several types of insomnolent mentation, which involve sense making (e.g., problem solving). SMT postulates counter-insomnolent mentation, thought patterns that interfere with insomnolent mentation. The CS is predicted to be both somnolent and counter-insomnolent (super-somnolent). Participants either engage in constructive worry Carney & Waters (2006) or in the CS using SomnoTest an iOS app developed by CogSci Apps Corp. (led by Beaudoin) based on mySleepButton®.&nbsp

Observation of slow light in the noise spectrum of a vertical external cavity surface emitting laser

The role of coherent population oscillations is evidenced in the noise spectrum of an ultra-low noise lasers. This effect is isolated in the intensity noise spectrum of an optimized single-frequency vertical external cavity surface emitting laser. The coherent population oscillations induced by the lasing mode manifest themselves through their associated dispersion that leads to slow light effects probed by the spontaneous emission present in the non-lasing side modes.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

2D photonic-crystal optomechanical nanoresonator

We present the optical optimization of an optomechanical device based on a suspended InP membrane patterned with a 2D near-wavelength grating (NWG) based on a 2D photonic-crystal geometry. We first identify by numerical simulation a set of geometrical parameters providing a reflectivity higher than 99.8 % over a 50-nm span. We then study the limitations induced by the finite value of the optical waist and lateral size of the NWG pattern using different numerical approaches. The NWG grating, pierced in a suspended InP 265 nm-thick membrane, is used to form a compact microcavity involving the suspended nano-membrane as end mirror. The resulting cavity has a waist size smaller than 10 $\mu$m and a finesse in the 200 range. It is used to probe the Brownian motion of the mechanical modes of the nanomembrane

Network Defence Using Attacker-Defender Interaction Modelling

Network security is still lacking an efficient system which selects a response action based on observed security events and which is capable of running autonomously. The main reason for this is the lack of an effective defence strategy. In this Ph.D., we endeavour to create such a defence strategy. We propose to model the interaction between an attacker and a defender to comprehend how the attacker’s goals affect his actions and use the model as a basis for a more refined network defence strategy. We formulate the research questions that need to be answered and we discuss, how the answers to these questions relate to the proposed solution. This research is at the initial phase and will contribute to a Ph.D. thesis in four years

1.3 mm Wavelength VLBI of Sagittarius A*: Detection of Time-Variable Emission on Event Horizon Scales

Sagittarius A*, the ~4 x 10^6 solar mass black hole candidate at the Galactic Center, can be studied on Schwarzschild radius scales with (sub)millimeter wavelength Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). We report on 1.3 mm wavelength observations of Sgr A* using a VLBI array consisting of the JCMT on Mauna Kea, the ARO/SMT on Mt. Graham in Arizona, and two telescopes of the CARMA array at Cedar Flat in California. Both Sgr A* and the quasar calibrator 1924-292 were observed over three consecutive nights, and both sources were clearly detected on all baselines. For the first time, we are able to extract 1.3 mm VLBI interferometer phase information on Sgr A* through measurement of closure phase on the triangle of baselines. On the third night of observing, the correlated flux density of Sgr A* on all VLBI baselines increased relative to the first two nights, providing strong evidence for time-variable change on scales of a few Schwarzschild radii. These results suggest that future VLBI observations with greater sensitivity and additional baselines will play a valuable role in determining the structure of emission near the event horizon of Sgr A*.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to ApJ

Heterogeneous integration and precise alignment of InP-based photonic crystal lasers to complementary metal-oxide semiconductor fabricated silicon-on-insulator wire waveguides

The integration of two-dimensional III-V InP-based photonic crystal and silicon wire waveguides is achieved through an accurate alignment of the two optical levels using mix-and-match deep ultraviolet (DUV)/electron beam lithography. The adhesively bonded structures exhibit an enhancement of light emission at frequencies where low group velocity modes of the photonic crystal line defect waveguides occur. Pulsed laser operation is obtained from these modes at room temperature under optical pumping. The laser light is coupled out of the Si waveguide via grating couplers directly to single mode fiber

Segmenting Motion Capture Data Using a Qualitative Analysis

Many interactive 3D games utilize motion capture for both character animation and user input. These applications require short, meaningful sequences of data. Manually producing these segments of motion capture data is a laborious, time-consuming process that is impractical for real-time applications. We present a method to automatically produce semantic segmentations of general motion capture data by examining the qualitative properties that are intrinsic to all motions, using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). LMA provides a good compromise between high-level semantic features, which are difficult to extract for general motions, and lowlevel kinematic features, which often yield unsophisticated segmentations. Our method finds motion sequences which exhibit high output similarity from a collection of neural networks trained with temporal variance. We show that segmentations produced using LMA features are more similar to manual segmentations, both at the frame and the segment level, than several other automatic segmentation methods