1,419 research outputs found
Test of Guttmann and Enting's conjecture in the eight-vertex model
We investigate the analyticity property of the partially resummed series
expansion(PRSE) of the partition function for the eight-vertex model.
Developing a graphical technique, we have obtained a first few terms of the
PRSE and found that these terms have a pole only at one point in the complex
plane of the coupling constant. This result supports the conjecture proposed by
Guttmann and Enting concerning the ``solvability'' in statistical mechanical
lattice models.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, RevTe
Nasal Lipopolysaccharide Challenge and Cytokine Measurement Reflects Innate Mucosal Immune Responsiveness
<div><p>Background</p><p><b>P</b>ractical methods of monitoring innate immune mucosal responsiveness are lacking. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a component of the cell wall of Gram negative bacteria and a potent activator of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4. To measure LPS responsiveness of the nasal mucosa, we administered LPS as a nasal spray and quantified chemokine and cytokine levels in mucosal lining fluid (MLF).</p><p>Methods</p><p>We performed a 5-way cross-over, single blind, placebo-controlled study in 15 healthy non-atopic subjects (n = 14 <i>per protocol</i>). Doses of ultrapure LPS (1, 10, 30 or 100μg/100μl) or placebo were administered by a single nasal spray to each nostril. Using the recently developed method of nasosorption with synthetic adsorptive matrices (SAM), a series of samples were taken. A panel of seven cytokines/chemokines were measured by multiplex immunoassay in MLF. mRNA for intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was quantified from nasal epithelial curettage samples taken before and after challenge.</p><p>Results</p><p>Topical nasal LPS was well tolerated, causing no symptoms and no visible changes to the nasal mucosa. LPS induced dose-related increases in MLF levels of IL-1β, IL-6, CXCL8 (IL-8) and CCL3 (MIP-1α) (AUC at 0.5 to 10h, compared to placebo, p<0.05 at 30 and 100μg LPS). At 100μg LPS, IL-10, IFN-α and TNF-α were also increased (p<0.05). Dose-related changes in mucosal ICAM-1 mRNA were also seen after challenge, and neutrophils appeared to peak in MLF at 8h. However, 2 subjects with high baseline cytokine levels showed prominent cytokine and chemokine responses to relatively low LPS doses (10μg and 30μg LPS).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Topical nasal LPS causes dose-dependent increases in cytokines, chemokines, mRNA and cells. However, responsiveness can show unpredictable variations, possibly because baseline innate tone is affected by environmental factors. We believe that this new technique will have wide application in the study of the innate immune responses of the respiratory mucosa.</p><p>Key Messages</p><p>Ultrapure LPS was used as innate immune stimulus in a human nasal challenge model, with serial sampling of nasal mucosal lining fluid (MLF) by nasosorption using a synthetic absorptive matrix (SAM), and nasal curettage of mucosal cells. A dose response could be demonstrated in terms of levels of IL-1β, IL-6, CXCL8 and CCL3 in MLF, as well as ICAM-1 mRNA in nasal curettage specimens, and levels of neutrophils in nasal lavage. Depending on higher baseline levels of inflammation, there were occasional magnified innate inflammatory responses to LPS.</p><p>Trial Registration</p><p>Clinical Trials.gov <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02284074?term=nasal+lipopolysaccharide&rank=1" target="_blank">NCT02284074</a></p></div
Temporal decorrelation of collective oscillations in neural networks with local inhibition and long-range excitation
We consider two neuronal networks coupled by long-range excitatory
interactions. Oscillations in the gamma frequency band are generated within
each network by local inhibition. When long-range excitation is weak, these
oscillations phase-lock with a phase-shift dependent on the strength of local
inhibition. Increasing the strength of long-range excitation induces a
transition to chaos via period-doubling or quasi-periodic scenarios. In the
chaotic regime oscillatory activity undergoes fast temporal decorrelation. The
generality of these dynamical properties is assessed in firing-rate models as
well as in large networks of conductance-based neurons.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Synchronization of Integrate and Fire oscillators with global coupling
In this article we study the behavior of globally coupled assemblies of a
large number of Integrate and Fire oscillators with excitatory pulse-like
interactions. On some simple models we show that the additive effects of pulses
on the state of Integrate and Fire oscillators are sufficient for the
synchronization of the relaxations of all the oscillators. This synchronization
occurs in two forms depending on the system: either the oscillators evolve ``en
bloc'' at the same phase and therefore relax together or the oscillators do not
remain in phase but their relaxations occur always in stable avalanches. We
prove that synchronization can occur independently of the convexity or
concavity of the oscillators evolution function. Furthermore the presence of
disorder, up to some level, is not only compatible with synchronization, but
removes some possible degeneracy of identical systems and allows new mechanisms
towards this state.Comment: 37 pages, 19 postscript figures, Latex 2
Statistical-Mechanical Measure of Stochastic Spiking Coherence in A Population of Inhibitory Subthreshold Neurons
By varying the noise intensity, we study stochastic spiking coherence (i.e.,
collective coherence between noise-induced neural spikings) in an inhibitory
population of subthreshold neurons (which cannot fire spontaneously without
noise). This stochastic spiking coherence may be well visualized in the raster
plot of neural spikes. For a coherent case, partially-occupied "stripes"
(composed of spikes and indicating collective coherence) are formed in the
raster plot. This partial occupation occurs due to "stochastic spike skipping"
which is well shown in the multi-peaked interspike interval histogram. The main
purpose of our work is to quantitatively measure the degree of stochastic
spiking coherence seen in the raster plot. We introduce a new spike-based
coherence measure by considering the occupation pattern and the pacing
pattern of spikes in the stripes. In particular, the pacing degree between
spikes is determined in a statistical-mechanical way by quantifying the average
contribution of (microscopic) individual spikes to the (macroscopic)
ensemble-averaged global potential. This "statistical-mechanical" measure
is in contrast to the conventional measures such as the "thermodynamic" order
parameter (which concerns the time-averaged fluctuations of the macroscopic
global potential), the "microscopic" correlation-based measure (based on the
cross-correlation between the microscopic individual potentials), and the
measures of precise spike timing (based on the peri-stimulus time histogram).
In terms of , we quantitatively characterize the stochastic spiking
coherence, and find that reflects the degree of collective spiking
coherence seen in the raster plot very well. Hence, the
"statistical-mechanical" spike-based measure may be used usefully to
quantify the degree of stochastic spiking coherence in a statistical-mechanical
way.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the J. Comput. Neurosc
Coarse-grained dynamics of an activity bump in a neural field model
We study a stochastic nonlocal PDE, arising in the context of modelling
spatially distributed neural activity, which is capable of sustaining
stationary and moving spatially-localized ``activity bumps''. This system is
known to undergo a pitchfork bifurcation in bump speed as a parameter (the
strength of adaptation) is changed; yet increasing the noise intensity
effectively slowed the motion of the bump. Here we revisit the system from the
point of view of describing the high-dimensional stochastic dynamics in terms
of the effective dynamics of a single scalar "coarse" variable. We show that
such a reduced description in the form of an effective Langevin equation
characterized by a double-well potential is quantitatively successful. The
effective potential can be extracted using short, appropriately-initialized
bursts of direct simulation. We demonstrate this approach in terms of (a) an
experience-based "intelligent" choice of the coarse observable and (b) an
observable obtained through data-mining direct simulation results, using a
diffusion map approach.Comment: Corrected aknowledgement
Dynamically-Coupled Oscillators -- Cooperative Behavior via Dynamical Interaction --
We propose a theoretical framework to study the cooperative behavior of
dynamically coupled oscillators (DCOs) that possess dynamical interactions.
Then, to understand synchronization phenomena in networks of interneurons which
possess inhibitory interactions, we propose a DCO model with dynamics of
interactions that tend to cause 180-degree phase lags. Employing an approach
developed here, we demonstrate that although our model displays synchronization
at high frequencies, it does not exhibit synchronization at low frequencies
because this dynamical interaction does not cause a phase lag sufficiently
large to cancel the effect of the inhibition. We interpret the disappearance of
synchronization in our model with decreasing frequency as describing the
breakdown of synchronization in the interneuron network of the CA1 area below
the critical frequency of 20 Hz.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
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