The me in memory:the role of the self in autobiographical memory development

This paper tests the hypothesis that self development plays a role in the offset of childhood amnesia; assessing the importance of both the capacity to anchor a memory to the self-concept, and the strength of the self-concept as an anchor. We demonstrate for the first time that the volume of 3- to 6-year-old’s specific autobiographical memories is predicted by both the volume of their self-knowledge, and their capacity for self-source monitoring within self-referencing paradigms (N =186). Moreover, there is a bidirectional relationship between self and memory, such that autobiographical memory mediates the link between self-source monitoring and self-knowledge. These predictive relationships suggests that the self memory system is active in early childhood

Preparation of Dicke States in an Ion Chain

We have investigated theoretically and experimentally a method for preparing Dicke states in trapped atomic ions. We consider a linear chain of $N$ ion qubits that is prepared in a particular Fock state of motion, $|m>$. The $m$ phonons are removed by applying a laser pulse globally to the $N$ qubits, and converting the motional excitation to $m$ flipped spins. The global nature of this pulse ensures that the $m$ flipped spins are shared by all the target ions in a state that is a close approximation to the Dicke state \D{N}{m}. We calculate numerically the fidelity limits of the protocol and find small deviations from the ideal state for $m = 1$ and $m = 2$. We have demonstrated the basic features of this protocol by preparing the state \D{2}{1} in two $^{25}$Mg$^+$ target ions trapped simultaneously with an $^{27}$Al$^+$ ancillary ion.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Date and Rate of Corn Planting

Corn is South Dakota’s most important grain crop. It is grown on 4 million acres annually. South Dakota ranks ninth among the states as a corn producer, having one-twentieth of the national acreage and one-thirtieth of the production. The state may be divided into three areas on the basis of the place of corn on the farm: the eastern area, where corn is complementary to wheat and grazing; and the western area, where corn is supplementary grazing

Stochastic model of transcription factor-regulated gene expression

We consider a stochastic model of transcription factor (TF)-regulated gene expression. The model describes two genes: Gene A and Gene B which synthesize the TFs and the target gene proteins respectively. We show through analytic calculations that the TF fluctuations have a significant effect on the distribution of the target gene protein levels when the mean TF level falls in the highest sensitive region of the dose-response curve. We further study the effect of reducing the copy number of Gene A from two to one. The enhanced TF fluctuations yield results different from those in the deterministic case. The probability that the target gene protein level exceeds a threshold value is calculated with a knowledge of the probability density functions associated with the TF and target gene protein levels. Numerical simulation results for a more detailed stochastic model are shown to be in agreement with those obtained through analytic calculations. The relevance of these results in the context of the genetic disorder haploinsufficiency is pointed out. Some experimental observations on the haploinsufficiency of the tumour suppressor gene, Nkx3.1, are explained with the help of the stochastic model of TF-regulated gene expression.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Biolog

Colour Relations in Form

The orthodox monadic determination thesis holds that we represent colour relations by virtue of representing colours. Against this orthodoxy, I argue that it is possible to represent colour relations without representing any colours. I present a model of iconic perceptual content that allows for such primitive relational colour representation, and provide four empirical arguments in its support. I close by surveying alternative views of the relationship between monadic and relational colour representation