6,013 research outputs found
Toward a dynamical systems analysis of neuromodulation
This work presents some first steps toward a
more thorough understanding of the control systems
employed in evolutionary robotics. In order
to choose an appropriate architecture or to construct
an effective novel control system we need
insights into what makes control systems successful,
robust, evolvable, etc. Here we present analysis
intended to shed light on this type of question
as it applies to a novel class of artificial neural
networks that include a neuromodulatory mechanism:
GasNets.
We begin by instantiating a particular GasNet
subcircuit responsible for tuneable pattern generation
and thought to underpin the attractive
property of “temporal adaptivity”. Rather than
work within the GasNet formalism, we develop an
extension of the well-known FitzHugh-Nagumo
equations. The continuous nature of our model
allows us to conduct a thorough dynamical systems
analysis and to draw parallels between this
subcircuit and beating/bursting phenomena reported
in the neuroscience literature.
We then proceed to explore the effects of different
types of parameter modulation on the system
dynamics. We conclude that while there are
key differences between the gain modulation used
in the GasNet and alternative schemes (including
threshold modulation of more traditional synaptic
input), both approaches are able to produce
tuneable pattern generation. While it appears, at
least in this study, that the GasNet’s gain modulation
may not be crucial to pattern generation ,
we go on to suggest some possible advantages it
could confer
The Local Group: The Ultimate Deep Field
Near-field cosmology -- using detailed observations of the Local Group and
its environs to study wide-ranging questions in galaxy formation and dark
matter physics -- has become a mature and rich field over the past decade.
There are lingering concerns, however, that the relatively small size of the
present-day Local Group ( Mpc diameter) imposes insurmountable
sample-variance uncertainties, limiting its broader utility. We consider the
region spanned by the Local Group's progenitors at earlier times and show that
it reaches co-moving Mpc in linear size (a volume of ) at . This size at early cosmic epochs is large enough
to be representative in terms of the matter density and counts of dark matter
halos with . The Local
Group's stellar fossil record traces the cosmic evolution of galaxies with
(reaching
at ) over a region that is comparable to or larger than
the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) for the entire history of the Universe. It
is highly complementary to the HUDF, as it probes much fainter galaxies but
does not contain the intrinsically rarer, brighter sources that are detectable
in the HUDF. Archaeological studies in the Local Group also provide the ability
to trace the evolution of individual galaxies across time as opposed to
evaluating statistical connections between temporally distinct populations. In
the JWST era, resolved stellar populations will probe regions larger than the
HUDF and any deep JWST fields, further enhancing the value of near-field
cosmology.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; MNRAS Letters, in pres
Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Receptor Antagonists: Beyond Migraine Pain—A Possible Analgesic Strategy for Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis (OA) pain is poorly understood and managed, as current analgesics have only limited efficacy and unwanted side effect profiles. A broader understanding of the pathological mechanisms driving OA joint pain is vital for the development of improved analgesics. Both clinical and preclinical data suggest an association between joint levels of the sensory neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and pain during OA. Whether a direct causative link exists remains an important unanswered question. Given the recent development of small molecule CGRP receptor antagonists with clinical efficacy against migraine pain, the interrogation of the role of CGRP in OA pain mechanisms is extremely timely. In this article, we provide the background to the importance of CGRP in pain mechanisms and review the emerging clinical and preclinical evidence implicating a role for CGRP in OA pain. We suggest that the CGRP receptor antagonists developed for migraine pain warrant further investigation in OA
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Living in Plurilingual Spaces: Self-Study, Critical Friendship, and the Plurality of Publics
In this article we engage in collaborative self-study through a critical friendship that is specifically designed to evoke our personal histories in relation to how we approach our practices as teacher educators. In particular, we focus on understanding the conceptual origins of our pedagogies of teacher education and how our identities as teacher educators were shaped, and continue to be shaped, by colleagues, teacher candidates, and by the process of self-study itself. We argue that the multiple studies that are available to any self-study research program creates a plurality of publics in which we identify, and are identified, in particular ways by particular members of the teacher education community. One significant avenue for our developing line of work concerns the ways in which our shared bilingualism plays out during our critical friendship, and how the use of multiple languages helps us to reframe our identities as teacher educators, particularly whilst engaged in translanguaging practices
The Mass Dependance of Satellite Quenching in Milky Way-like Halos
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we examine the quenching of satellite
galaxies around isolated Milky Way-like hosts in the local Universe. We find
that the efficiency of satellite quenching around isolated galaxies is low and
roughly constant over two orders of magnitude in satellite stellar mass
( = ), with only of systems
quenched as a result of environmental processes. While largely independent of
satellite stellar mass, satellite quenching does exhibit clear dependence on
the properties of the host. We show that satellites of passive hosts are
substantially more likely to be quenched than those of star-forming hosts, and
we present evidence that more massive halos quench their satellites more
efficiently. These results extend trends seen previously in more massive host
halos and for higher satellite masses. Taken together, it appears that galaxies
with stellar masses larger than about are uniformly
resistant to environmental quenching, with the relative harshness of the host
environment likely serving as the primary driver of satellite quenching. At
lower stellar masses (), however, observations of the Local
Group suggest that the vast majority of satellite galaxies are quenched,
potentially pointing towards a characteristic satellite mass scale below which
quenching efficiency increases dramatically.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
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