Differential changes in human perception of speed due to motion adaptation

Visual systems adapt to the prevailing image conditions. This improves the ability to discriminate between two similar stimuli but has the side effect that veridical perception is degraded. For example, prolonged driving at 100 km/h may reduce the perceived speed to 80 km/h but improve the sensitivity to changes in the prevailing speed. Here we use radially expanding flow fields with a wide combination of adapt and test speeds to study human speed perception. Adaptation at speeds higher than the test always attenuates perceived speed, whereas adaptation at low and testing at high speeds increases perceived speed. We show that adaptation is stronger (i.e., post-adaptation speeds are perceived as slower) when the dots in the expanding flow field accelerate towards the periphery rather than traveling at constant speeds. We also show that speed discriminability is reduced following adaptation to low speeds when tested at high speeds and increased when the test speed is at or below prior adaptation speeds. We conclude that the relative speeds of the adaptation and test patterns are important parameters governing speed-related adaptation effects in the human brain

Real-time static potential in hot QCD

We derive a static potential for a heavy quark-antiquark pair propagating in Minkowski time at finite temperature, by defining a suitable gauge-invariant Green's function and computing it to first non-trivial order in Hard Thermal Loop resummed perturbation theory. The resulting Debye-screened potential could be used in models that attempt to describe the ``melting'' of heavy quarkonium at high temperatures. We show, in particular, that the potential develops an imaginary part, implying that thermal effects generate a finite width for the quarkonium peak in the dilepton production rate. For quarkonium with a very heavy constituent mass M, the width can be ignored for T \lsim g^2 M/12\pi, where g^2 is the strong gauge coupling; for a physical case like bottomonium, it could become important at temperatures as low as 250 MeV. Finally, we point out that the physics related to the finite width originates from the Landau-damping of low-frequency gauge fields, and could be studied non-perturbatively by making use of the classical approximation.Comment: 20 pages. v2: a number of clarifications and a few references added; published versio

Chemical speciation of environmentally significant metals with inorganic ligands. Part 4: The Cd2+ + OH–, Cl–, CO32–, SO42–, and PO43– systems (IUPAC Technical Report)

The numerical modeling of Cd-II speciation amongst the environmental inorganic ligands Cl-, OH-, CO32-, SO42-, and PO43- requires reliable values for the relevant stability (formation) constants. This paper compiles and provides a critical review of these constants and related thermodynamic data. It recommends values of log(10) beta(p,q,r) valid at I-m = 0 mol kg(-1) and 25 degrees C (298.15 K), along with the equations and empirical reaction ion interaction coefficients, Delta epsilon, required to calculate log(10)beta(p),(,q,r) values at higher ionic strengths using the Bronsted-Guggenheim-Scatchard specific ion interaction theory (SIT). Values for the corresponding reaction enthalpies, Delta H-r, are reported where available. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Cd-II-chlorido system and (at low ionic strengths) the Cd-II-sulfato system, the equilibrium reactions for the title systems are relatively poorly characterized. In weakly acidic fresh water systems (-log(10){[H+]/c degrees} < 6), in the absence of organic ligands (e. g., humic substances), Cd-II speciation is dominated by Cd2+(aq), with CdSO4(aq) as a minor species. In this respect, Cd-II is similar to Cu-II [2007PBa] and Pb-II [2009PBa]. However, in weakly alkaline fresh water solutions, 7.5 < -log(10) {[H+]/c degrees} < 8.6, the speciation of Cd-II is still dominated by Cd2+(aq), whereas for Cu-II [2007PBa] and Pb-II [2009PBa] the carbonato-species MCO3(aq) dominates. In weakly acidic saline systems (-log(10) {[H+]/c degrees} < 6; -log(10) {[Cl-]/c degrees} < 2.0) the speciation is dominated by CdCln(2-n)+ complexes, (n = 1-3), with Cd2+(aq) as a minor species. This is qualitatively similar to the situation for Cu-II and Pb-II. However, in weakly alkaline saline solutions, including seawater, the chlorido-complexes still dominate the speciation of Cd-II because of the relatively low stability of CdCO3(aq). In contrast, the speciation of Cu-II [2007PBa] and Pb-II [2009PBa] in seawater is dominated by the respective species MCO3(aq). There is scope for additional high-quality measurements in the Cd2+ + H+ + CO32- system as the large uncertainties in the stability constants for the Cd2+-carbonato complexes significantly affect the speciation calculations