1,506 research outputs found
Human Frontal–Subcortical Circuit and Asymmetric Belief Updating
How humans integrate information to form beliefs about reality is a question that has engaged scientists for centuries, yet the biological system supporting this process is not well understood. One of the most salient attributes of information is valence. Whether a piece of news is good or bad is critical in determining whether it will alter our beliefs. Here, we reveal a frontal–subcortical circuit in the left hemisphere that is simultaneously associated with enhanced integration of favorable information into beliefs and impaired integration of unfavorable information. Specifically, for favorable information, stronger white matter connectivity within this system, particularly between the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left subcortical regions (including the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, putamen, and pallidum), as well as insular cortex, is associated with greater change in belief. However, for unfavorable information, stronger connectivity within this system, particularly between the left IFG and left pallidum, putamen, and insular cortex, is associated with reduced change in beliefs. These novel results are consistent with models suggesting that partially separable processes govern learning from favorable and unfavorable information
On the Ricci dark energy model
We study the Ricci dark energy model (RDE) which was introduced as an
alternative to the holographic dark energy model. We point out that an
accelerating phase of the RDE is that of a constant dark energy model. This
implies that the RDE may not be a new model of explaining the present
accelerating universe.Comment: 8 page
The History of Galaxy Formation in Groups: An Observational Perspective
We present a pedagogical review on the formation and evolution of galaxies in
groups, utilizing observational information from the Local Group to galaxies at
z~6. The majority of galaxies in the nearby universe are found in groups, and
galaxies at all redshifts up to z~6 tend to cluster on the scale of nearby
groups (~1 Mpc). This suggests that the group environment may play a role in
the formation of most galaxies. The Local Group, and other nearby groups,
display a diversity in star formation and morphological properties that puts
limits on how, and when, galaxies in groups formed. Effects that depend on an
intragroup medium, such as ram-pressure and strangulation, are likely not major
mechanisms driving group galaxy evolution. Simple dynamical friction arguments
however show that galaxy mergers should be common, and a dominant process for
driving evolution. While mergers between L_* galaxies are observed to be rare
at z < 1, they are much more common at earlier times. This is due to the
increased density of the universe, and to the fact that high mass galaxies are
highly clustered on the scale of groups. We furthermore discus why the local
number density environment of galaxies strongly correlates with galaxy
properties, and why the group environment may be the preferred method for
establishing the relationship between properties of galaxies and their local
density.Comment: Invited review, 16 pages, to be published in ESO Astrophysics
Symposia: "Groups of Galaxies in the Nearby Universe", eds. I. Saviane, V.
Ivanov, J. Borissov
Spectral signatures of photosynthesis II: coevolution with other stars and the atmosphere on extrasolar worlds
As photosynthesis on Earth produces the primary signatures of life that can
be detected astronomically at the global scale, a strong focus of the search
for extrasolar life will be photosynthesis, particularly photosynthesis that
has evolved with a different parent star. We take planetary atmospheric
compositions simulated by Segura, et al. (2003, 2005) for Earth-like planets
around observed F2V and K2V stars, modeled M1V and M5V stars, and around the
active M4.5V star AD Leo; our scenarios use Earth's atmospheric composition as
well as very low O2 content in case anoxygenic photosynthesis dominates. We
calculate the incident spectral photon flux densities at the surface of the
planet and under water. We identify bands of available photosynthetically
relevant radiation and find that photosynthetic pigments on planets around F2V
stars may peak in absorbance in the blue, K2V in the red-orange, and M stars in
the NIR, in bands at 0.93-1.1 microns, 1.1-1.4 microns, 1.5-1.8 microns, and
1.8-2.5 microns. In addition, we calculate wavelength restrictions for
underwater organisms and depths of water at which they would be protected from
UV flares in the early life of M stars. We estimate the potential productivity
for both surface and underwater photosynthesis, for both oxygenic and
anoxygenic photosynthesis, and for hypothetical photosynthesis in which longer
wavelength, multi-photosystem series are used.Comment: 59 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, forthcoming in Astrobiology ~March
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Experimental tracking of the evolution of foam in porous media
The authors discuss the experiments that have been done to track the effects of diffusion of gas in foams trapped in porous media. They describe several types of experiments and discuss the difficulties that prevent quantitative results from being obtained in most cases. However, the experiments do help them understand the physics and diffusion-driven coarsening of foams trapped in porous media. This understanding is necessary to simulate the behavior of these foams and predict the mobilization characteristics of foam in porous media. At the end of this paper, they compare the trends and predictions resulting from the experimental work to the predictions of the models which are presented elsewhere
Could Large CP Violation Be Detected at Colliders?
We argue that CP--violation effects below a few tenths of a percent are
probably undetectable at hadron and electron colliders. Thus only operators
whose contributions interfere with tree--level Standard Model amplitudes are
detectable. We list these operators for Standard Model external particles and
some two and three body final state reactions that could show detectable
effects. These could test electroweak baryogenesis scenarios.Comment: 11pp, LaTeX, UM--TH--92--27(massaged to make TeX output cleaner), no
picture
Polariton Analysis of a Four-Level Atom Strongly Coupled to a Cavity Mode
We present a complete analytical solution for a single four-level atom
strongly coupled to a cavity field mode and driven by external coherent laser
fields. The four-level atomic system consists of a three-level subsystem in an
EIT configuration, plus an additional atomic level; this system has been
predicted to exhibit a photon blockade effect. The solution is presented in
terms of polaritons. An effective Hamiltonian obtained by this procedure is
analyzed from the viewpoint of an effective two-level system, and the dynamic
Stark splitting of dressed states is discussed. The fluorescence spectrum of
light exiting the cavity mode is analyzed and relevant transitions identified.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Percolation in the classical blockmodel
Classical blockmodel is known as the simplest among models of networks with
community structure. The model can be also seen as an extremely simply example
of interconnected networks. For this reason, it is surprising that the
percolation transition in the classical blockmodel has not been examined so
far, although the phenomenon has been studied in a variety of much more
complicated models of interconnected and multiplex networks. In this paper we
derive the self-consistent equation for the size the global percolation cluster
in the classical blockmodel. We also find the condition for percolation
threshold which characterizes the emergence of the giant component. We show
that the discussed percolation phenomenon may cause unexpected problems in a
simple optimization process of the multilevel network construction. Numerical
simulations confirm the correctness of our theoretical derivations.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
The multicovering radius problem for some types of discrete structures
The covering radius problem is a question in coding theory concerned with
finding the minimum radius such that, given a code that is a subset of an
underlying metric space, balls of radius over its code words cover the
entire metric space. Klapper introduced a code parameter, called the
multicovering radius, which is a generalization of the covering radius. In this
paper, we introduce an analogue of the multicovering radius for permutation
codes (cf. Keevash and Ku, 2006) and for codes of perfect matchings (cf. Aw and
Ku, 2012). We apply probabilistic tools to give some lower bounds on the
multicovering radii of these codes. In the process of obtaining these results,
we also correct an error in the proof of the lower bound of the covering radius
that appeared in Keevash and Ku (2006). We conclude with a discussion of the
multicovering radius problem in an even more general context, which offers room
for further research.Comment: To appear in Designs, Codes and Cryptography (2012
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