Gain Modulation by Corticostriatal and Thalamostriatal Input Signals during Reward-Conditioned Behavior.

The cortex and thalamus send excitatory projections to the striatum, but little is known about how these inputs, either individually or collectively, regulate striatal dynamics during behavior. The lateral striatum receives overlapping input from the secondary motor cortex (M2), an area involved in licking, and the parafascicular thalamic nucleus (PF). Using neural recordings, together with optogenetic terminal inhibition, we examine the contribution of M2 and PF projections on medium spiny projection neuron (MSN) activity as mice performed an anticipatory licking task. Each input has a similar contribution to striatal activity. By comparing how suppressing single or multiple projections altered striatal activity, we find that cortical and thalamic input signals modulate MSN gain and that this effect is more pronounced in a temporally specific period of the task following the cue presentation. These results demonstrate that cortical and thalamic inputs synergistically regulate striatal output during reward-conditioned behavior

Entangled Design Knowledge: Relationships as an Approach to Claims Reuse

As a discipline, human-computer interaction produces creative and innovative designs that could provide a reusable collection of design knowledge on which future efforts could build. It is unfortunate that so much of this knowledge is not fully reused by designers today. To encourage the use of previously identified HCI knowledge, we propose a model of reuse building on Carroll?s notion of claims, design knowledge components that capture the positive and negative psychological effects of design features. We address four challenges associated with reuse in a library of claims, adopted from software engineering?a discipline in which the notion of reuse has been prevalent for quite some time. Building on Krueger?s definition of reuse and his conceptualization of four key aspects?abstraction, selection, specification, and integration?we propose a reuse approach based on incorporating these four aspects into the design process. To abstract, select, specify and integrate claims, we identify claim relationships, descriptions of connections between claims. We portray how claim relationships can be used to aid in identifying claim types, searching for claims, creating new claims, and aggregating claims. By integrating relationships into a claims library, we demonstrate how they can be applied to assist claims reuse and present studies related to each application of the relationships

PT-Symmetric Electronics

We show both theoretically and experimentally that a pair of inductively coupled active LRC circuits (dimer), one with amplification and another with an equivalent amount of attenuation, display all the features which characterize a wide class of non-Hermitian systems which commute with the joint parity-time PT operator: typical normal modes, temporal evolution, and scattering processes. Utilizing a Liouvilian formulation, we can define an underlying PT-symmetric Hamiltonian, which provides important insight for understanding the behavior of the system. When the PT-dimer is coupled to transmission lines, the resulting scattering signal reveals novel features which reflect the PT-symmetry of the scattering target. Specifically we show that the device can show two different behaviors simultaneously, an amplifier or an absorber, depending on the direction and phase relation of the interrogating waves. Having an exact theory, and due to its relative experimental simplicity, PT-symmetric electronics offers new insights into the properties of PT-symmetric systems which are at the forefront of the research in mathematical physics and related fields.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Spiraling Toward Usability: An Integrated Design Environment and Management System

Decades of innovation in designing usable (and unusable) interfaces have resulted in a plethora of guidelines, usability engineering methods, and other design tools. However, novice developers often have difficulty selecting and utilizing theory-based design tools in a coherent design process. This work introduces an integrated design environment and knowledge management system, LINK-UP. The central design record (CDR) module, provides tools to enable a guided, coherent development process. The CDR aims to prevent breakdowns occurring between design and evaluation phases both within the development team and during design knowledge reuse processes. We report on results from three case studies illustrating novice designers use of LINK-UP. A design knowledge IDE incorporating a CDR can help novice developers craft interfaces in a methodical fashion, while applying, verifying, and producing reusable design knowledge. Although LINK-UP supports a specific design domain, our IDE approach can transfer to other domains

Breathers in lattices with alternating strain-hardening and strain-softening interactions

This workfocuses onthe study of time-periodic solutions, including breathers, in a nonlinear lattice consisting of elements whose contacts alternate between strain-hardening and strain-softening. The existence, stability, and bifurcation structure of such solutions, as well as the system dynamics in the presence of damping and driving are studied systematically. It is found that the linear resonant peaks in the system bend toward the frequency gap in the presence of nonlinearity. The time-periodic solutions that lie within the frequency gap compare well to Hamiltonian breathers if the damping and driving are small. In the Hamiltonian limit of the problem, we use a multiple scale analysis to derive a Nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation to construct both acoustic and optical breathers. The latter compare very well with the numerically obtained breathers in the Hamiltonian limit

Alternative new notation for quantum information theory

A new notation has been introduced for the quantum information theory. By this notation,some calculations became simple in quantum information theory such as quantum swapping, quantum teleportation.Comment: submitte

Why People Participate in the Sharing Economy: An Empirical Investigation of Uber

Purpose - This study aimed at examining the effects of inhibiting, motivating, and technological factors on users’ intention to participate in the sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach - A self-reported online survey was conducted among Uber users in Hong Kong. A total of 295 valid responses were collected. The research model was empirically tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Findings - The results suggested that perceived risks, perceived benefits, trust in the platform, and perceived platform qualities were significant predictors of users’ intention to participate in Uber. Research implications - This study bridged the research gaps in the sharing economy literature by examining the effects of perceived risks, perceived benefits, and trust in the platform on users’ intention to participate in the sharing economy. Moreover, this study enriched the extended valence framework by incorporating perceived platform qualities into the research model, responding to the calls for the inclusion of technological variables in information systems research. Practical implications - The findings provided practitioners with insights into enhancing users’ intention to participate in the sharing economy. Originality/value - This study presented one of the first attempts to systematically examine the effects of inhibiting, motivating and technological factors on users’ intention to participate in the sharing economy

Innovation in Malaysia wood based manufacturing firm: An illuminating case study

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the innovation pattern and strategy in wood-based upstream production in view of its significance in the LMT (Low and Medium Technology) industries in a developing economy such as Malaysia.The design of this research is based on a single case study approach.Purposive sampling technique was used and data collection obtained through interview approach.Semi-structured interview was conducted with the general manager of one of the selected wood based manufacturing firm in the state of Selangor, Malaysia which fulfilled the basic criterion set chosen such as the experience involved in innovative activities in past three years.The major findings of the study implied that both product and process innovation are complementary to each other.Sequentially, product innovation takes place and followed by the process innovation.In addition, it has been observed that both competition and market demand induces innovation activities in the wood-based innovation in the manufacturing firm.It is also detected that virtually customers have actively involved in the firm’s innovation process.Alternatively, trade shows, exhibition, online furniture deco webpage, and Wood Furniture Association are traced as the important external sources which have contributed to the information in the firm’s innovation process.Information gathered from the external sources subsequently transformed into internal innovation through trial and error process by internal employees of the firm

Density-functional calculation of ionization energies of current-carrying atomic states

Current-density-functional theory is used to calculate ionization energies of current-carrying atomic states. A perturbative approximation to full current-density-functional theory is implemented for the first time, and found to be numerically feasible. Different parametrizations for the current-dependence of the density functional are critically compared. Orbital currents in open-shell atoms turn out to produce a small shift in the ionization energies. We find that modern density functionals have reached an accuracy at which small current-related terms appearing in open-shell configurations are not negligible anymore compared to the remaining difference to experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 2 tables, accepted by Phys. Rev.