2,096 research outputs found
Convective instability and mass transport of diffusion layers in a Hele-Shaw geometry
We consider experimentally the instability and mass transport of a
porous-medium flow in a Hele-Shaw geometry. In an initially stable
configuration, a lighter fluid (water) is located over a heavier fluid
(propylene glycol). The fluids mix via diffusion with some regions of the
resulting mixture being heavier than either pure fluid. Density-driven
convection occurs with downward penetrating dense fingers that transport mass
much more effectively than diffusion alone. We investigate the initial
instability and the quasi steady state. The convective time and velocity
scales, finger width, wave number selection, and normalized mass transport are
determined for 6,000<Ra<90,000. The results have important implications for
determining the time scales and rates of dissolution trapping of carbon dioxide
in brine aquifers proposed as possible geologic repositories for sequestering
carbon dioxide.Comment: 4 page, 3 figure
Learned-Norm Pooling for Deep Feedforward and Recurrent Neural Networks
In this paper we propose and investigate a novel nonlinear unit, called
unit, for deep neural networks. The proposed unit receives signals from
several projections of a subset of units in the layer below and computes a
normalized norm. We notice two interesting interpretations of the
unit. First, the proposed unit can be understood as a generalization of a
number of conventional pooling operators such as average, root-mean-square and
max pooling widely used in, for instance, convolutional neural networks (CNN),
HMAX models and neocognitrons. Furthermore, the unit is, to a certain
degree, similar to the recently proposed maxout unit (Goodfellow et al., 2013)
which achieved the state-of-the-art object recognition results on a number of
benchmark datasets. Secondly, we provide a geometrical interpretation of the
activation function based on which we argue that the unit is more
efficient at representing complex, nonlinear separating boundaries. Each
unit defines a superelliptic boundary, with its exact shape defined by the
order . We claim that this makes it possible to model arbitrarily shaped,
curved boundaries more efficiently by combining a few units of different
orders. This insight justifies the need for learning different orders for each
unit in the model. We empirically evaluate the proposed units on a number
of datasets and show that multilayer perceptrons (MLP) consisting of the
units achieve the state-of-the-art results on a number of benchmark datasets.
Furthermore, we evaluate the proposed unit on the recently proposed deep
recurrent neural networks (RNN).Comment: ECML/PKDD 201
Resolution of Nested Neuronal Representations Can Be Exponential in the Number of Neurons
Collective computation is typically polynomial in the number of computational elements, such as transistors or neurons, whether one considers the storage capacity of a memory device or the number of floating-point operations per second of a CPU. However, we show here that the capacity of a computational network to resolve real-valued signals of arbitrary dimensions can be exponential in N, even if the individual elements are noisy and unreliable. Nested, modular codes that achieve such high resolutions mirror the properties of grid cells in vertebrates, which underlie spatial navigation
A Learning Framework for Morphological Operators using Counter-Harmonic Mean
We present a novel framework for learning morphological operators using
counter-harmonic mean. It combines concepts from morphology and convolutional
neural networks. A thorough experimental validation analyzes basic
morphological operators dilation and erosion, opening and closing, as well as
the much more complex top-hat transform, for which we report a real-world
application from the steel industry. Using online learning and stochastic
gradient descent, our system learns both the structuring element and the
composition of operators. It scales well to large datasets and online settings.Comment: Submitted to ISMM'1
Universal properties of correlation transfer in integrate-and-fire neurons
One of the fundamental characteristics of a nonlinear system is how it
transfers correlations in its inputs to correlations in its outputs. This is
particularly important in the nervous system, where correlations between
spiking neurons are prominent. Using linear response and asymptotic methods for
pairs of unconnected integrate-and-fire (IF) neurons receiving white noise
inputs, we show that this correlation transfer depends on the output spike
firing rate in a strong, stereotyped manner, and is, surprisingly, almost
independent of the interspike variance. For cells receiving heterogeneous
inputs, we further show that correlation increases with the geometric mean
spiking rate in the same stereotyped manner, greatly extending the generality
of this relationship. We present an immediate consequence of this relationship
for population coding via tuning curves
The life of the cortical column: opening the domain of functional architecture of the cortex
The concept of the cortical column refers to vertical cell bands with similar response properties, which were initially observed by Vernon Mountcastle’s mapping of single cell recordings in the cat somatic cortex. It has subsequently guided over 50 years of neuroscientific research, in which fundamental questions about the modularity of the cortex and basic principles of sensory information processing were empirically investigated. Nevertheless, the status of the column remains controversial today, as skeptical commentators proclaim that the vertical cell bands are a functionally insignificant by-product of ontogenetic development. This paper inquires how the column came to be viewed as an elementary unit of the cortex from Mountcastle’s discovery in 1955 until David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel’s reception of the Nobel Prize in 1981. I first argue that Mountcastle’s vertical electrode recordings served as criteria for applying the column concept to electrophysiological data. In contrast to previous authors, I claim that this move from electrophysiological data to the phenomenon of columnar responses was concept-laden, but not theory-laden. In the second part of the paper, I argue that Mountcastle’s criteria provided Hubel Wiesel with a conceptual outlook, i.e. it allowed them to anticipate columnar patterns in the cat and macaque visual cortex. I argue that in the late 1970s, this outlook only briefly took a form that one could call a ‘theory’ of the cerebral cortex, before new experimental techniques started to diversify column research. I end by showing how this account of early column research fits into a larger project that follows the conceptual development of the column into the present
Comprehensive analysis of preeclampsia-associated DNA methylation in the placenta
Background:A small number of recent reports have suggested that altered placental DNA methylation may be associated with early onset preeclampsia. It is important that further studies be undertaken to confirm and develop these findings. We therefore undertook a systematic analysis of DNA methylation patterns in placental tissue from 24 women with preeclampsia and 24 with uncomplicated pregnancy outcome
Solvable model of a phase oscillator network on a circle with infinite-range Mexican-hat-type interaction
We describe a solvable model of a phase oscillator network on a circle with
infinite-range Mexican-hat-type interaction. We derive self-consistent
equations of the order parameters and obtain three non-trivial solutions
characterized by the rotation number. We also derive relevant characteristics
such as the location-dependent distributions of the resultant frequencies of
desynchronized oscillators. Simulation results closely agree with the
theoretical ones
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