Review of available synchronization and time distribution techniques

The methods of synchronizing precision clocks will be reviewed placing particular attention to the simpler techniques, their accuracies, and the approximate cost of equipment. The more exotic methods of synchronization are discussed in lesser detail. The synchronization techniques that will be covered will include satellite dissemination, communication and navigation transmissions via VLF, LF, HF, UHF and microwave as well as commercial and armed forces television. Portable clock trips will also be discussed

Chronic alcohol consumption and withdrawal do not induce cell death in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, but lead to irreversible depression of peptide immunoreactivity and mRNA levels

There is evidence that chronic ethanol treatment (CET) disrupts the biological rhythms of various brain functions and behaviors. Because the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is widely recognized as the dominant pacemaker of the circadian system, we have examined the effects of CET and withdrawal on the main morphological features and chemoarchitecture of this hypothalamic nucleus. Groups of rats ethanol-treated for 6 and 12 months were compared with withdrawn rats (ethanol-treated for 6 months and then switched to a normal diet for an additional 6 months) and with groups of age-matched control and pair-fed control rats. The volume and the total number of neurons of the SCN were estimated from conventionally stained material, whereas the total number of astrocytes and of neurons containing vasopressin (AVP), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP), and somatostatin (SS) were estimated from immunostained sections. The estimates were obtained using unbiased stereological methods, based on Cavalieri’s principle and the optical fractionator. The volume of the SCN and the total number of SCN neurons and astrocytes did not vary among groups. We found, however, that CET induced a significant reduction in the total number of AVP-, VIP-, GRP-, and SS-containing neurons. Withdrawal from alcohol did not reduce but rather augmented the loss of VIP- and GRP-immunoreactive neurons. The CET-induced neurochemical alterations seem to result from a decrease in neuropeptide synthesis, as revealed by the reduction in AVP and VIP mRNA levels demonstrated byin situhybridization with radioactively labeled 48-mer AVP and 30-mer VIP probes. It is thus possible to conclude that the irreversible CET-induced changes in the neurochemistry of the SCN might underpin the disturbances in circadian rhythms observed after long-term alcohol consumption.</jats:p

Motor Learning Deficits in Parkinson\u27s Disease (PD) and Their Effect on Training Response in Gait and Balance: A Narrative Review

Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) is a neurological disorder traditionally associated with degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra, which results in bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, and postural instability and gait disability (PIGD). The disorder has also been implicated in degradation of motor learning. While individuals with PD are able to learn, certain aspects of learning, especially automatic responses to feedback, are faulty, resulting in a reliance on feedforward systems of movement learning and control. Because of this, patients with PD may require more training to achieve and retain motor learning and may require additional sensory information or motor guidance in order to facilitate this learning. Furthermore, they may be unable to maintain these gains in environments and situations in which conscious effort is divided (such as dual-tasking). These shortcomings in motor learning could play a large part in degenerative gait and balance symptoms often seen in the disease, as patients are unable to adapt to gradual sensory and motor degradation. Research has shown that physical and exercise therapy can help patients with PD to adapt new feedforward strategies to partially counteract these symptoms. In particular, balance, treadmill, resistance, and repeated perturbation training therapies have been shown to improve motor patterns in PD. However, much research is still needed to determine which of these therapies best alleviates which symptoms of PIGD, the needed dose and intensity of these therapies, and long-term retention effects. The benefits of such technologies as augmented feedback, motorized perturbations, virtual reality, and weight-bearing assistance are also of interest. This narrative review will evaluate the effect of PD on motor learning and the effect of motor learning deficits on response to physical therapy and training programs, focusing specifically on features related to PIGD. Potential methods to strengthen therapeutic effects will be discussed

Electron surface layer at the interface of a plasma and a dielectric wall

We study the potential and the charge distribution across the interface of a plasma and a dielectric wall. For this purpose, the charge bound to the wall is modelled as a quasi-stationary electron surface layer which satisfies Poisson's equation and minimizes the grand canonical potential of the wall-thermalized excess electrons constituting the wall charge. Based on an effective model for a graded interface taking into account the image potential and the offset of the conduction band to the potential just outside the dielectric, we specifically calculate the potential and the electron distribution for magnesium oxide, silicon dioxide and sapphire surfaces in contact with a helium discharge. Depending on the electron affinity of the surface, we find two vastly different behaviors. For negative electron affinity, electrons do not penetrate into the wall and an external surface charge is formed in the image potential, while for positive electron affinity, electrons penetrate into the wall and a space charge layer develops in the interior of the dielectric. We also investigate how the electron surface layer merges with the bulk of the dielectric.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted versio

An improved ontological representation of dendritic cells as a paradigm for all cell types

The Cell Ontology (CL) is designed to provide a standardized representation of cell types for data annotation. Currently, the CL employs multiple is_a relations, defining cell types in terms of histological, functional, and lineage properties, and the majority of definitions are written with sufficient generality to hold across multiple species. This approach limits the CL’s utility for cross-species data integration. To address this problem, we developed a method for the ontological representation of cells and applied this method to develop a dendritic cell ontology (DC-CL). DC-CL subtypes are delineated on the basis of surface protein expression, systematically including both species-general and species-specific types and optimizing DC-CL for the analysis of flow cytometry data. This approach brings benefits in the form of increased accuracy, support for reasoning, and interoperability with other ontology resources. 104. Barry Smith, “Toward a Realistic Science of Environments”, Ecological Psychology, 2009, 21 (2), April-June, 121-130. Abstract: The perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson embraces a radically externalistic view of mind and action. We have, for Gibson, not a Cartesian mind or soul, with its interior theater of contents and the consequent problem of explaining how this mind or soul and its psychological environment can succeed in grasping physical objects external to itself. Rather, we have a perceiving, acting organism, whose perceptions and actions are always already tuned to the parts and moments, the things and surfaces, of its external environment. We describe how on this basis Gibson sought to develop a realist science of environments which will be ‘consistent with physics, mechanics, optics, acoustics, and chemistry’

Oseledets' Splitting of Standard-like Maps

For the class of differentiable maps of the plane and, in particular, for standard-like maps (McMillan form), a simple relation is shown between the directions of the local invariant manifolds of a generic point and its contribution to the finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) of the associated orbit. By computing also the point-wise curvature of the manifolds, we produce a comparative study between local Lyapunov exponent, manifold's curvature and splitting angle between stable/unstable manifolds. Interestingly, the analysis of the Chirikov-Taylor standard map suggests that the positive contributions to the FTLE average mostly come from points of the orbit where the structure of the manifolds is locally hyperbolic: where the manifolds are flat and transversal, the one-step exponent is predominantly positive and large; this behaviour is intended in a purely statistical sense, since it exhibits large deviations. Such phenomenon can be understood by analytic arguments which, as a by-product, also suggest an explicit way to point-wise approximate the splitting.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure

Auger de-excitation of metastable molecules at metallic surfaces

We study secondary electron emission from metallic surfaces due to Auger de-excitation of diatomic metastable molecules. Our approach is based on an effective model for the two active electrons involved in the process -- a molecular electron described by a linear combination of atomic orbitals when it is bound and a two-center Coulomb wave when it is not and a metal electron described by the eigenfunctions of a step potential -- and employs Keldysh Green's functions. Solving the Dyson equation for the retarded Green's function by exponential resummation we are able to treat time-nonlocal self-energies and to avoid the wide-band approximation.Results are presented for the de-excitation of \NitrogenDominantMetastableState\ on aluminum and tungsten and discussed in view of previous experimental and theoretical investigations. We find quantitative agreement with experimental data for tungsten indicating that the effective model captures the physics of the process quite well. For aluminum we predict secondary electron emission due to Auger de-excitation to be one to two orders of magnitude smaller than the one found for resonant charge-transfer and subsequent auto-detachment.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, revised version using an improved single-electron basi