391 research outputs found
Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) of physical interaction with dynamically moving objects
© 2016 Jungnickel and Gramann. The non-invasive recording and analysis of human brain activity during active movements in natural working conditions is a central challenge in Neuroergonomics research. Existing brain imaging approaches do not allow for an investigation of brain dynamics during active behavior because their sensors cannot follow the movement of the signal source. However, movements that require the operator to react fast and to adapt to a dynamically changing environment occur frequently in working environments like assembly-line work, construction trade, health care, but also outside the working environment like in team sports. Overcoming the restrictions of existing imaging methods would allow for deeper insights into neurocognitive processes at workplaces that require physical interactions and thus could help to adapt work settings to the user. To investigate the brain dynamics accompanying rapid volatile movements we used a visual oddball paradigm where participants had to react to color changes either with a simple button press or by physically pointing towards a moving target. Using a mobile brain/body imaging approach (MoBI) including independent component analysis (ICA) with subsequent backprojection of cluster activity allowed for systematically describing the contribution of brain and non-brain sources to the sensor signal. The results demonstrate that visual event-related potentials (ERPs) can be analyzed for simple button presses and physical pointing responses and that it is possible to quantify the contribution of brain processes, muscle activity and eye movements to the signal recorded at the sensor level even for fast volatile arm movements with strong jerks. Using MoBI in naturalistic working environments can thus help to analyze brain dynamics in natural working conditions and help improving unhealthy or inefficient work settings
On the ground states of the Bernasconi model
The ground states of the Bernasconi model are binary +1/-1 sequences of
length N with low autocorrelations. We introduce the notion of perfect
sequences, binary sequences with one-valued off-peak correlations of minimum
amount. If they exist, they are ground states. Using results from the
mathematical theory of cyclic difference sets, we specify all values of N for
which perfect sequences do exist and how to construct them. For other values of
N, we investigate almost perfect sequences, i.e. sequences with two-valued
off-peak correlations of minimum amount. Numerical and analytical results
support the conjecture that almost perfect sequences do exist for all values of
N, but that they are not always ground states. We present a construction for
low-energy configurations that works if N is the product of two odd primes.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e; extended content, added references; submitted to
J.Phys.
The TLR-NF-kB axis contributes to the monocytic inflammatory response against a virulent strain of Lichtheimia corymbifera , a causative agent of invasive mucormycosis
Invasive mucormycosis (IM) is a life-threatening infection caused by the fungal order Mucorales, its diagnosis is often delayed, and mortality rates range from 40-80% due to its rapid progression. Individuals suffering from hematological malignancies, diabetes mellitus, organ transplantations, and most recently COVID-19 are particularly susceptible to infection by Mucorales. Given the increase in the occurrence of these diseases, mucormycosis has emerged as one of the most common fungal infections in the last years. However, little is known about the host immune response to Mucorales. Therefore, we characterized the interaction among L. corymbifera— one of the most common causative agents of IM—and human monocytes, which are specialized phagocytes that play an instrumental role in the modulation of the inflammatory response against several pathogenic fungi. This study covered four relevant aspects of the host-pathogen interaction: i) The recognition of L. corymbifera by human monocytes. ii) The intracellular fate of L. corymbifera. iii) The inflammatory response by human monocytes against the most common causative agents of mucormycosis. iv) The main activated Pattern-Recognition Receptors (PRRs) inflammatory signaling cascades in response to L. corymbifera . Here, we demonstrate that L. corymbifera exhibits resistance to intracellular killing over 24 hours, does not germinate, and inflicts minimal damage to the host cell. Nonetheless, viable fungal spores of L. corymbifera induced early production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β, and late release of TNF-α and IL-6 by human monocytes. Moreover, we revealed that IL-1β production predominantly depends on Toll-like receptors (TLRs) priming, especially via TLR4, while TNF-α is secreted via C-type lectin receptors (CTLs), and IL-6 is produced by synergistic activation of TLRs and CTLs. All these signaling pathways lead to the activation of NF-kB, a transcription factor that not only regulates the inflammatory response but also the apoptotic fate of monocytes during infection with L. corymbifera. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into the host-pathogen interactions, which may serve for future therapies to enhance the host inflammatory response to L. corymbifera
Optimal Traffic Networks
Inspired by studies on the airports' network and the physical Internet, we
propose a general model of weighted networks via an optimization principle. The
topology of the optimal network turns out to be a spanning tree that minimizes
a combination of topological and metric quantities. It is characterized by a
strongly heterogeneous traffic, non-trivial correlations between distance and
traffic and a broadly distributed centrality. A clear spatial hierarchical
organization, with local hubs distributing traffic in smaller regions, emerges
as a result of the optimization. Varying the parameters of the cost function,
different classes of trees are recovered, including in particular the minimum
spanning tree and the shortest path tree. These results suggest that a
variational approach represents an alternative and possibly very meaningful
path to the study of the structure of complex weighted networks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, final revised versio
Two flavor chiral phase transition from nonperturbative flow equations
We employ nonperturbative flow equations to compute the equation of state for
two flavor QCD within an effective quark meson model. This yields the
temperature and quark mass dependence of quantities like the chiral condensate
or the pion mass. A precision estimate of the universal critical equation of
state for the three-dimensional O(4) Heisenberg model is presented. We
explicitly connect the O(4) universal behavior near the critical temperature
and zero quark mass with the physics at zero temperature and a realistic pion
mass. For realistic quark masses the pion correlation length near T_c turns out
to be smaller than its zero temperature value.Comment: 49 pages including 15 figures, LaTeX, uses epsf.sty and rotate.st
Brownian Motions on Metric Graphs
Brownian motions on a metric graph are defined. Their generators are
characterized as Laplace operators subject to Wentzell boundary at every
vertex. Conversely, given a set of Wentzell boundary conditions at the vertices
of a metric graph, a Brownian motion is constructed pathwise on this graph so
that its generator satisfies the given boundary conditions.Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures. 2nd revision of our article 1102.4937: The
introduction has been modified, several references were added. This article
will appear in the special issue of Journal of Mathematical Physics
celebrating Elliott Lieb's 80th birthda
Chiral Hierarchies, Compositeness and the Renormalization Group
A wide class of models involve the fine--tuning of significant hierarchies
between a strong--coupling ``compositeness'' scale, and a low energy dynamical
symmetry breaking scale. We examine the issue of whether such hierarchies are
generally endangered by Coleman--Weinberg instabilities. A careful study using
perturbative two--loop renormalization group methods finds that consistent
large hierarchies are not generally disallowed.Comment: 22 pp + 5 figs (uuencoded and submitted separately),
SSCL-Preprint-490; FERMI-PUB-93/035-
(Meta-)stable reconstructions of the diamond(111) surface: interplay between diamond- and graphite-like bonding
Off-lattice Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations of the clean diamond
(111) surface, based on the effective many-body Brenner potential, yield the
Pandey reconstruction in agreement with \emph{ab-initio}
calculations and predict the existence of new meta-stable states, very near in
energy, with all surface atoms in three-fold graphite-like bonding. We believe
that the long-standing debate on the structural and electronic properties of
this surface could be solved by considering this type of carbon-specific
configurations.Comment: 4 pages + 4 figures, Phys. Rev. B Rapid Comm., in press (15Apr00).
For many additional details (animations, xyz files) see electronic supplement
to this paper at http://www.sci.kun.nl/tvs/carbon/meta.htm
Spontaneously broken color
The vacuum of QCD is characterized by the Higgs mechanism. Color is
``spontaneously broken'' by a quark-antiquark condensate in the octet
representation. The massive gluons carry integer electric charges and are
identified with the vector mesons. The fermionic excitations consist of the low
mass baryon octet and a singlet. The interactions between these particles and
the light pseudoscalar octet are largely determined by chiral symmetry and a
nonlinear local symmetry. A consistent phenomenological picture of strong
interactions at long distances arises from a simple effective action.Comment: 67 page
Restriction of AID activity and somatic hypermutation by PARP-1
Affinity maturation of the humoral immune response depends on somatic hypermutation (SHM) of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, which is initiated by targeted lesion introduction by activation-induced deaminase (AID), followed by error-prone DNA repair. Stringent regulation of this process is essential to prevent genetic instability, but no negative feedback control has been identified to date. Here we show that poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a key factor restricting AID activity during somatic hypermutation. Poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) chains formed at DNA breaks trigger AID-PAR association, thus preventing excessive DNA damage induction at sites of AID action. Accordingly, AID activity and somatic hypermutation at the Ig variable region is decreased by PARP-1 activity. In addition, PARP-1 regulates DNA lesion processing by affecting strand biased A:T mutagenesis. Our study establishes a novel function of the ancestral genome maintenance factor PARP-1 as a critical local feedback regulator of both AID activity and DNA repair during Ig gene diversification
- …