A common neural substrate for processing scenes and egomotion-compatible visual motion

Neuroimaging studies have revealed two separate classes of category-selective regions specialized in optic flow (egomotion-compatible) processing and in scene/place perception. Despite the importance of both optic flow and scene/place recognition to estimate changes in position and orientation within the environment during self-motion, the possible functional link between egomotion- and scene-selective regions has not yet been established. Here we reanalyzed functional magnetic resonance images from a large sample of participants performing two well-known “localizer” fMRI experiments, consisting in passive viewing of navigationally relevant stimuli such as buildings and places (scene/place stimulus) and coherently moving fields of dots simulating the visual stimulation during self-motion (flow fields). After interrogating the egomotion-selective areas with respect to the scene/place stimulus and the scene-selective areas with respect to flow fields, we found that the egomotion-selective areas V6+ and pIPS/V3A responded bilaterally more to scenes/places compared to faces, and all the scene-selective areas (parahippocampal place area or PPA, retrosplenial complex or RSC, and occipital place area or OPA) responded more to egomotion-compatible optic flow compared to random motion. The conjunction analysis between scene/place and flow field stimuli revealed that the most important focus of common activation was found in the dorsolateral parieto-occipital cortex, spanning the scene-selective OPA and the egomotion-selective pIPS/V3A. Individual inspection of the relative locations of these two regions revealed a partial overlap and a similar response profile to an independent low-level visual motion stimulus, suggesting that OPA and pIPS/V3A may be part of a unique motion-selective complex specialized in encoding both egomotion- and scene-relevant information, likely for the control of navigation in a structured environment

Earthquakes in a fault system embedded in an elastic body subject to increasing shear stress

We consider the faults of an elastic body subject to an increasing stress and the stress field generated by slip on a fault. The slip along the fault releases the stress component parallel to the slip, but the component normal to the fault is not released and increases in time at the same rate as the shear affecting the body. The effect is an increase of the value of the force necessary to cause the subsequent slip; and, if the shear increases linearly, it causes an increase of the time intervals between the earthquakes on the fault, that is between the stress drop p and the slip s. The density distribution of p in a given time interval is computed; it is found that rigorously it is not a power law although it is a decreasing function of p. It is also seen that, as in the cases in which it was assumed that the component of the stress field locking the fault, after each earthquake, in the time interval to the next earthquake, would be anelastically released, the logarithm of the density distribution of the moments of the earthquakes is a linear function of log (M0 ) and a linear function of M in any time interval; M0 and M being the scalar seismic moment and the magnitude, respectively. Conditions for the existence of these linear relationships are discussed finding that a sufficient condition, when the range of p is not exceptionally large, is that the density distribution of p be of the type log (p), which includes the case when it is independent of the fault linear size l. The Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude relationship and the conditions to obtain aftershocks and seismic swarms generated by this model are presented and discussed. In order to obtain the observed density distribution of earthquakes one or several hypotheses can be done: 1) the stress locking the faults, between successive earthquakes of the same fault, is released anelastically; 2) the density distribution of the sizes of the faults is such as to cause the logarithm of the density distribution of log (M0) and of M to be linear; 3) the density distribution of log M0 (M) is linear and the linearity factor is related to the density distribution of the stress drop and not to that of the linear dimensions of the faults

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase: origin of substrate specificity

All forms of serine hydroxymethyltransferase, for which a primary structure is known, have five threonine residues near the active-site lysyl residue (K229) that forms the internal aldimine with pyridoxal phosphate. For Escherichia coli serine hydroxymethyltransferase each of these threonine residues has been changed to an alanine residue. The resulting five mutant enzymes were purified and characterized with respect to kinetic and spectral properties. The mutant enzymes T224A and T227A showed no significant changes in kinetic and spectral properties compared to the wild-type enzyme. The T225A and T230A enzymes exhibited differences in K(m) and k(cat) values but exhibited the same spectral properties as the wild-type enzyme. The four threonine residues at positions 224, 225, 227, and 230 do not play a critical role in the mechanism of the enzyme. The T226A enzyme had nearly normal affinity for substrates and coenzymes but had only 3% of the catalytic activity of the wild-type enzyme. The spectrum of the T226A enzyme in the presence of amino acid substrates showed a large absorption maximum at 343 nm with only a small absorption band at 425 nm, unlike the wild-type enzyme whose enzyme-substrate complexes absorb at 425 nm. Rapid reaction studies showed that when amino acid substrates and substrate analogues were added to the T226A enzyme, the internal aldimine absorbing at 422 nm was rapidly converted to a complex absorbing at 343 nm in a second-order process. This was followed by a very slow first-order formation of a complex absorbing at 425 nm. Variation of the initial rapid second-order process as a function of pH suggested that the anionic form of the amino acid forms the first complex with the enzyme. The results are interpreted as being due to the rapid formation of a gem-diamine complex between amino acids and T226A enzyme with a rate-determining formation of the external aldimine. This suggests that Thr-226 plays an important role in converting the gem-diamine complex to the external aldimine complex. Variation of the kinetic constants with amino acid structure suggests that the T226A enzyme distinguishes between substrates and substrate analogues in the formation of the gem-diamine complex

Highly-controlled grafting of mono and dicationic 4,4′-bipyridine derivatives on SBA-15 for potential application as adsorbent of CuCl2 from ethanol solution

AbstractThis work describes a highly controlled post-grafting of mono and dicationic 4,4′-bipyridine alkoxysilane derivatives (Bipy+ and Bipy2+) onto the surface of an ordered mesoporous silica, SBA-15. The materials obtained are designated as SBA-15/Bipy+Cl− and SBA-15/Bipy2+Cl2-, both possessing chloride as counter ion. The regular arrangement of uniform pores of this inorganic matrix is likely to ensure good accessibility to the active centers (electron acceptors) attached to the surface. The materials are excellent adsorbents due to the ability of the functional groups to retain copper chlorides on their surfaces as anionic complexes (CuCl2+nn-) in ethanol. From the adsorption, results it was possible to probe the functional surface monolayer of the materials, which present a highly homogenous distribution of functional groups inside the ordered SBA-15 channels, with an exchange efficiency of 93% for SBA-15/Bipy+Cl− and 94% for SBA-15/Bipy2+Cl2-. Both adsorbent materials are potentially useful in the pre-concentration and further analysis of Cu(II) present in trace amounts in ethanol, extensively used as an automotive fuel in Brazil

Il Pooling-score (P-score): Variabilit\ue0 inter- e intra-individuale nella valutazione endoscopica della gravit\ue0 della disfagia

This study evaluated the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Pooling score (P-score) in clinical endoscopic evaluation of severity of swal- lowing disorder, considering excess residue in the pharynx and larynx. The score (minimum 4 - maximum 11) is obtained by the sum of the scores given to the site of the bolus, the amount and ability to control residue/bolus pooling, the latter assessed on the basis of cough, raclage, number of dry voluntary or re ex swallowing acts ( 5). Four judges evaluated 30 short lms of pharyngeal transit of 10 solid (1/4 of a cracker), 11 creamy (1 tablespoon of jam) and 9 liquid (1 tablespoon of 5 cc of water coloured with methlyene blue, 1 ml in 100 ml) boluses in 23 subjects (10 M/13 F, age from 31 to 76 yrs, mean age 58.56\ub111.76 years) with different pathologies. The lms were randomly distributed on two CDs, which differed in terms of the sequence of the lms, and were given to judges (after an explanatory ses- sion) at time 0, 24 hours later (time 1) and after 7 days (time 2). The inter- and intra-rater reliability of the P-score was calculated using the intra-class correlation coef cient (ICC; 3,k). The possibility that consistency of boluses could affect the scoring of the lms was considered. The ICC for site, amount, management and the P-score total was found to be, respectively, 0.999, 0.997, 1.00 and 0.999. Clinical evaluation of a criterion of severity of a swallowing disorder remains a crucial point in the management of patients with pathologies that predispose to complications. The P-score, derived from static and dynamic parameters, yielded a very high correlation among the scores attributed by the four judges during observations carried out at different times. Bolus consistencies did not affect the outcome of the test: the analysis of variance, performed to verify if the scores attributed by the four judges to the parameters selected, might be in uenced by the different consistencies of the boluses, was not signi cant. These initial data validate the clinical use of the P-score in the management of patients with deglutition disorders by a multidisciplinary team

Observation of an Efimov spectrum in an atomic system

In 1970 V. Efimov predicted a puzzling quantum-mechanical effect that is still of great interest today. He found that three particles subjected to a resonant pairwise interaction can join into an infinite number of loosely bound states even though each particle pair cannot bind. Interestingly, the properties of these aggregates, such as the peculiar geometric scaling of their energy spectrum, are universal, i.e. independent of the microscopic details of their components. Despite an extensive search in many different physical systems, including atoms, molecules and nuclei, the characteristic spectrum of Efimov trimer states still eludes observation. Here we report on the discovery of two bound trimer states of potassium atoms very close to the Efimov scenario, which we reveal by studying three-particle collisions in an ultracold gas. Our observation provides the first evidence of an Efimov spectrum and allows a direct test of its scaling behaviour, shedding new light onto the physics of few-body systems.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Role of endovascular repair in the management of late pseudo-aneurysms following open surgery for aortic coarctation.

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Sensitivity studies on the photolysis rates calculation in Amazonian atmospheric chemistry ? Part I: The impact of the direct radiative effect of biomass burning aerosol particles

International audienceThe impact of the direct radiative effect of the aerosol particles on the calculation of the photolysis rates and consequently on the atmospheric chemistry in regional smoke clouds due to biomass burning over the Amazon basin is addressed in this work. It explores a case study for 19 September 2002 at LBA-RACCI-SMOCC (The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment in Amazonia ? Radiation, Cloud, and Climate Interactions ? Smoke, Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall and Climate) pasture site in SW Amazonia. The Tropospheric Ultraviolet Visible radiation model (TUV) version 4.2, (Madronich et al., 1987) is used for the photolysis rates calculation considering the layer aerosol optical depth from the Coupled Aerosol Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CATT-BRAMS) (Freitas et al., 2005). A dynamical aerosol model (Procópio et al., 2003) is included in the radiative transfer model to take into account the high temporal variability of the aerosol optical thickness. This methodology is tested by comparing modeled and measured clear sky solar irradiances. The results show a good agreement with measured PAR radiation values. The actinic flux attenuation, for AOT (500 nm) values around 1.94, decreases the photolysis rates by about 70% in the presence of near-ground smoke aerosol and above the smoke layer the photolysis process tends to increase by about 40%. A simulation of the ozone production is carried out using a one-dimensional photochemical box model and comparisons with observation are shown

Adsorption of metal ions on novel 3-n-propyl (methylpyridinium) silsesquioxane chloride polymers surface: study of heterogeneous equilibrium at the solid-solution interface

Polymers Si3Py+Cl- (A) and Si4Py+Cl- (B), 3-n-propyl (3-methylpyridinium) silsesquioxane and 3-n-propyl(4-methylpyridinium) silsesquioxane chlorides, respectively, were prepared by the sol-gel processing method. The ion exchange capacities (mmol g-1) were 0.90 and 0.81 for (A) and (B) respectively. Considering the reaction nSiPy+Cl-(s) + M2+(sln) + 2Cl-(sln) <IMG SRC="../img/a18setas.jpg" WIDTH=54 HEIGHT=15>(SiPy+)nMCl2+n n-(s), the values of the stepwise equilibrium constants obtained were: (A) CuII: logK(2)¹= 4.14(0.03), logK(2)²= 2.91(0.04); ZnII, logK(2)¹= 3.3(0.3), logK(2)²= 4.9(0.3); (B) CuII:logK(2)¹= 3.82(0.03), logK(2)²= 3.00(0.04); ZnII, logK(2)¹= 3.93(0.03), logK(2)²= 3.55(0.08), being K(2)¹ and K(2)² the equilibrium constants for adsorption of the species MCl4(2-) and MCl3-, respectively. For adsorption of ZnII on Si3Py+Cl-, K(2)² > K(2)¹, indicating positive cooperativity, i.e., the adsorption of MCl4(2-)enhances the adsorption of MCl3- species on the adsorbent surface. For the other cations, K(2)¹ > K(2)², indicating that adsorption of MCl4(2-)depresses the adsorption of MCl3-species, indicating negative cooperativity. <IMG SRC="../img/a18setas.jpg" WIDTH=54 HEIGHT=15