Caroline - ein autonom fahrendes Fahrzeug im Stadtverkehr

We have previously shown that the physiological size of postsynaptic currents maximises energy efficiency rather than information transfer across the retinothalamic relay synapse. Here, we investigate information transmission and postsynaptic energy use at the next synapse along the visual pathway: from relay neurons in the thalamus to spiny stellate cells in layer 4 of the primary visual cortex (L4SS). Using both multicompartment Hodgkin-Huxley-type simulations and electrophysiological recordings in rodent brain slices, we find that increasing or decreasing the postsynaptic conductance of the set of thalamocortical inputs to one L4SS cell decreases the energy efficiency of information transmission from a single thalamocortical input. This result is obtained in the presence of random background input to the L4SS cell from excitatory and inhibitory corticocortical connections, which were simulated (both excitatory and inhibitory) or injected experimentally using dynamic-clamp (excitatory only). Thus, energy efficiency is not a unique property of strong relay synapses: even at the relatively weak thalamocortical synapse, each of which contributes minimally to the output firing of the L4SS cell, evolutionarily-selected postsynaptic properties appear to maximise the information transmitted per energy used

Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data

A search for high-energy neutrinos interacting within the IceCube detector between 2010 and 2012 provided the first evidence for a high-energy neutrino flux of extraterrestrial origin. Results from an analysis using the same methods with a third year (2012-2013) of data from the complete IceCube detector are consistent with the previously reported astrophysical flux in the 100 TeV - PeV range at the level of $10^{-8}\, \mathrm{GeV}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-2}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ per flavor and reject a purely atmospheric explanation for the combined 3-year data at $5.7 \sigma$. The data are consistent with expectations for equal fluxes of all three neutrino flavors and with isotropic arrival directions, suggesting either numerous or spatially extended sources. The three-year dataset, with a livetime of 988 days, contains a total of 37 neutrino candidate events with deposited energies ranging from 30 to 2000 TeV. The 2000 TeV event is the highest-energy neutrino interaction ever observed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by PRL. The event catalog, event displays, and other data tables are included after the final page of the article. Changed from the initial submission to reflect referee comments, expanding the section on atmospheric backgrounds, and fixes offsets of up to 0.9 seconds in reported event times. Address correspondence to: J. Feintzeig, C. Kopper, N. Whitehor

Measurement of atmospheric neutrino oscillations with IceCube

We present the first statistically significant detection of neutrino oscillations in the high-energy regime (>20 GeV) from an analysis of IceCube Neutrino Observatory data collected in 2010 and 2011. This measurement is made possible by the low-energy threshold of the DeepCore detector (~20 GeV) and benefits from the use of the IceCube detector as a veto against cosmic-ray-induced muon background. The oscillation signal was detected within a low-energy muon neutrino sample (20-100 GeV) extracted from data collected by DeepCore. A high-energy muon neutrino sample (100 GeV-10 TeV) was extracted from IceCube data to constrain systematic uncertainties. The disappearance of low-energy upward-going muon neutrinos was observed, and the nonoscillation hypothesis is rejected with more than 5σ significance. In a two-neutrino flavor formalism, our data are best described by the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters |Δm(32)(2)|=(2.3(-0.5)(+0.6))×10(-3) eV(2) and sin(2)(2θ(23))>0.93, and maximum mixing is favored.M. G. Aartsen ... G. C. Hill ... et al. (IceCube Collaboration

Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with IceTop-73

We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the IceTop air shower array in the energy range from 1.58 PeV to 1.26 EeV. The IceTop air shower array is the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the geographical South Pole. The analysis was performed using only information from IceTop. The data used in this work were taken from June 1, 2010 to May 13, 2011. During that period the IceTop array consisted of 73 stations, compared to 81 in its final configuration. The measured spectrum exhibits a clear deviation from a single power law above the knee around 4 PeV and below 1 EeV. We observe spectral hardening around 18 PeV and steepening around 130 PeV.M. G. Aartsen ... G. C. Hill ... et al. (IceCube Collaboration

Der Stadtpilot: autonomes Fahren auf dem Braunschweiger Stadtring

Autonomes Fahren wurde auf Autobahnen seit Anfang der neunziger Jahre in verschiedenen Projekten erforscht. Einen neuen Höhepunkt erreichte die Forschung an autonomen Fahrzeugen durch die DARPA Urban Challenge 2007. Erstmals stellte sich damit die Forschung der Herausforderung, autonomes Fahren auf eine stadtähnliche Umgebung zu übertragen. Die TU Braunschweig hat erfolgreich mit dem Forschungsfahrzeug Caroline an der DARPA Urban Challenge teilgenommen und qualifizierte sich zusammen mit 11 der ursprünglich 89 Teams für das Finale der Urban Challenge. Die gesammelten Erfahrungen im Bereich des Autonomen Fahrens werden gegenwärtig in einem Folgeprojekt mit dem Namen Stadtpilot vertieft. Ein Zusammenschluss aus drei Fachbereichen der TU hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, den Braunschweiger Stadtring autonom zu befahren. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages werden die grundlegenden Szenarien und Inhalte des Projektes dargestellt. Der Beitrag beschreibt die besonderen Herausforderungen des Stadtringszenarios an das System und die einzelnen Module

Caroline: An autonomously driving vehicle for urban environments

Universität Braunschweig to demonstrate its abilities to develop an autonomously driving vehicle to compete with the world’s best. After several stages of qualification, our team CarOLO qualified early for the DARPA Urban Challenge Final Event and was among only 11 teams from initially 89 competitors to compete in the final. We had the ability to work together in a large group of experts, each contributing his expertise in his discipline, and significant organizational, financial, and technical support by local sponsors, who helpe