De hybride en zijn ritme

In dit essay zal ik onderzoeken of het concept ritme weerstand kan bieden aan het onderscheid tussen subject en object, door een denkruimte te openen die hieraan voorbij gaat. Dit zal ik doen met behulp van het elfde plateau van Deleuze & Guattari`s ‘A Thousand Plateaus’, waarin zij het concept ritme inzetten om na te denken over de wijze waarop levende wezens zich tot hun omgeving verhouden

rmAgro, a reference model for data exchange in precision agriculture

From the start of information technology onwards there is a need to exchange data between different software components and as soon as they are developed by different parties there is a need for standard methods. One of the successful standards is ISO11783 for data exchange between implements and towards Farm Management Information Systems. However, with the introduction of new sensor systems and IoT, independently developed advisory systems and requirements for tracking and tracing, there is a need for standards covering a wider scope as above mentioned one. We started in the Netherlands in 2010 with as basis the first reference model for crop production, IMOT (1986). The data part of the reference model drmAgro, is set up as a Platform Independent Model (PIM) following UML. This PIM is transformed to specific models, like an XML model, a Java interface model and a DDL model for databases. Transformations to other languages are possible and a transformation to an OWL model is under development. The objective is to keep the specification of agricultural objects independent of the technology used for implementation. Care is taken that content of other models like ISO11783-10, AgroXML, Edaplos, Inspire and most recently ADAPT, is mappable to drmAgro. The result is a public available platform independent reference model which is and will be in continuous development. It is set up with a generic package and branch specific packages like crop production, greenhouse production and animal husbandry. Crop production covers a wide range of use cases like planning and reporting of fieldwork, providing advice, soil sampling and analyses, application of crop growth models, scheduling of farm operations, auditing, etc. This reference model is the basis for standardised SOAP/XML messages exchanged between farm management systems and advisors, processors and the government in the Netherlands. It is also the basis for REST/XML data exchange through the FIspace platform developed as an EU project. As mentioned above, there are different models intended as basis for standardised data exchange and many more proprietary interfaces defined. With globalisation of services in agriculture the need for one common basis will grow, while technology will continue to change. This requires a basis with clear semantics which is technology, platform, and independent. rmAgro has proven to be a solid basis for implementation of standardised data exchange through SOAP webservices in the Netherlands, and REST based message exchange in the FIspace project

Dopamine-induced dissociation of BOLD and neural activity in macaque visual cortex

Neuromodulators determine how neural circuits process information during cognitive states such as wakefulness, attention, learning, and memory [1]. fMRI can provide insight into their function and dynamics, but their exact effect on BOLD responses remains unclear [2, 3 and 4], limiting our ability to interpret the effects of changes in behavioral state using fMRI. Here, we investigated the effects of dopamine (DA) injections on neural responses and haemodynamic signals in macaque primary visual cortex (V1) using fMRI (7T) and intracortical electrophysiology. Aside from DA’s involvement in diseases such as Parkinson’s and schizophrenia, it also plays a role in visual perception [5, 6, 7 and 8]. We mimicked DAergic neuromodulation by systemic injection of L-DOPA and Carbidopa (LDC) or by local application of DA in V1 and found that systemic application of LDC increased the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and amplitude of the visually evoked neural responses in V1. However, visually induced BOLD responses decreased, whereas cerebral blood flow (CBF) responses increased. This dissociation of BOLD and CBF suggests that dopamine increases energy metabolism by a disproportionate amount relative to the CBF response, causing the reduced BOLD response. Local application of DA in V1 had no effect on neural activity, suggesting that the dopaminergic effects are mediated by long-range interactions. The combination of BOLD-based and CBF-based fMRI can provide a signature of dopaminergic neuromodulation, indicating that the application of multimodal methods can improve our ability to distinguish sensory processing from neuromodulatory effects

Unieke perceelcodering = Unique identification of agricultural fields

An identifier is specified for the global unique identification of agricultural fields. Different categories of fields are defined. Requirements for the identifier are formulated together with stakeholders. After inventory of systems for unique identification it was concluded that an identifier based on ISO15459is most suited to fulfil the requirements

Investigation of the neurovascular coupling in positive and negative BOLD responses in human brain at 7T

Decreases in stimulus-dependent blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal and their underlying neurovascular origins have recently gained considerable interest. In this study a multi-echo, BOLD-corrected vascular space occupancy (VASO) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique was used to investigate neurovascular responses during stimuli that elicit positive and negative BOLD responses in human brain at 7 T. Stimulus-induced BOLD, cerebral blood volume (CBV), and cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes were measured and analyzed in ‘arterial’ and ‘venous’ blood compartments in macro- and microvasculature. We found that the overall interplay of mean CBV, CBF and BOLD responses is similar for tasks inducing positive and negative BOLD responses. Some aspects of the neurovascular coupling however, such as the temporal response, cortical depth dependence, and the weighting between ‘arterial’ and ‘venous’ contributions, are significantly different for the different task conditions. Namely, while for excitatory tasks the BOLD response peaks at the cortical surface, and the CBV change is similar in cortex and pial vasculature, inhibitory tasks are associated with a maximum negative BOLD response in deeper layers, with CBV showing strong constriction of surface arteries and a faster return to baseline. The different interplays of CBV, CBF and BOLD during excitatory and inhibitory responses suggests different underlying hemodynamic mechanisms

Fine-Scale Spatial Organization of Face and Object Selectivity in the Temporal Lobe: Do Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Optical Imaging, and Electrophysiology Agree?

The spatial organization of the brain's object and face representations in the temporal lobe is critical for understanding high-level vision and cognition but is poorly understood. Recently, exciting progress has been made using advanced imaging and physiology methods in humans and nonhuman primates, and the combination of such methods may be particularly powerful. Studies applying these methods help us to understand how neuronal activity, optical imaging, and functional magnetic resonance imaging signals are related within the temporal lobe, and to uncover the fine-grained and large-scale spatial organization of object and face representations in the primate brain