Approximate Entropy of Spiking Series Reveals Different Dynamical States in Cortical Assemblies

Self-organized criticality theory proved that information transmission and computational performances of neural networks are optimal in critical state. By using recordings of the spontaneous activity originated by dissociated neuronal assemblies coupled to Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEAs), we tested this hypothesis using Approximate Entropy (ApEn) as a measure of complexity and information transfer. We analysed 60 min of electrophysiological activity of three neuronal cultures exhibiting either sub-critical, critical or super-critical behaviour. The firing patterns on each electrode was studied in terms of the inter-spike interval (ISI), whose complexity was quantified using ApEn. We assessed that in critical state the local complexity (measured in terms of ApEn) is larger than in sub- and super-critical conditions (mean ± std, ApEn about 0.93 ± 0.09, 0.66 ± 0.18, 0.49 ± 0.27, for the cultures in critical, sub-critical and super-critical state, respectively—differences statistically significant). Our estimations were stable when considering epochs as short as 5 min (pairwise cross- correlation of spatial distribution of mean ApEn of 94 ± 5%). These preliminary results indicate that ApEn has the potential of being a reliable and stable index to monitor local information transmission in a neuronal network during maturation. Thus, ApEn applied on ISI time series appears to be potentially useful to reflect the overall complex behaviour of the neural network, even monitoring a single specific location

Evidence that large vessels do affect near infrared spectroscopy

The influence of large vessels on near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement is generally considered negligible. Aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that changes in the vessel size, by varying the amount of absorbed NIR light, could profoundly affect NIRS blood volume indexes. Changes in haemoglobin concentration (tHb) and in tissue haemoglobin index (THI) were monitored over the basilic vein (BV) and over the biceps muscle belly, in 11 subjects (7 M – 4 F; age 31 ± 8 year) with simultaneous ultrasound monitoring of BV size. The arm was subjected to venous occlusion, according to two pressure profiles: slow (from 0 to 60 mmHg in 135 s) and rapid (0 to 40 mmHg maintained for 30 s). Both tHb and THI detected a larger blood volume increase (1.7 to 4 fold; p < 0.01) and exhibited a faster increase and a greater convexity on the BV than on the muscle. In addition, NIRS signals from BV exhibited higher correlation with changes in BV size than from muscle (r = 0.91 vs 0.55, p < 0.001 for THI). A collection of individual relevant recordings is also included. These results challenge the long-standing belief that the NIRS measurement is unaffected by large vessels and support the concept that large veins may be a major determinant of blood volume changes in multiple experimental conditions

The Role of Subjective Temporality in Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel

In this chapter we examine the tendency to view future-oriented mental time travel as a unitary faculty that, despite task-driven surface variation, ultimately reduces to a common phenomenological state. We review evidence that FMTT is neither unitary nor beholden to episodic memory: Rather, it is varied both in its memorial underpinnings and experiential realization. We conclude that the phenomenological diversity characterizing FMTT is dependent not on the type of memory activated during task performance, but on the kind of subjective temporality associated with the memory in play

Well-Being in the Christian Tradition

This paper discusses well-being in the Christian tradition

Rechtsphilosophische Aufsätze

Photomechanical reprint of papers & review articles from 1974 to 1992 mostly in German, some in Swedish or Danish: AUFSÄTZE ‘Beiträge zu den Beziehungen zwischen Gustav Radbruch & Georg Lukács’ [1979] / ‘Die Entwicklung des rechtstheoretischen Denkens in der Ungarischen Räterepublik’ [1969] / ‘Die Kodifikation & ihr Verfall in der Entwicklungsgeschichte der bürgerlichen Demokratie’ [1978] / ‘Rationalitet och rättens objektifiering’ [1975] / ‘Utopi og Kodifikation’ [1976] / ‘Historisches Wesen & aktuelle Bedeutung der Kodifikation’ [1977] / ‘Rechtssetzung als Objektivationsprozesses’ [1979] / ‘Die ministerielle Begründung in rechtsphilosophischer Sicht’ [1977] / ‘Moderne Staatlichkeit & modernes formales Recht’ [1982] / ‘Leibniz & die Frage der rechtlichen Systembildung’ [1973] / ‘Der Systemcharacter des Rechts’ [1979] / ‘Die grundlegende Gesellschaftlichkeit der Rechtsanwendung’ [1978] / ‘Über die Rechtsanwendung (Ontologische Überlegungen)’ [1986] / ‘Recht & Rechtsverwirklichung (»Juristischer Weltbild«, Subsumption & Manipulation)’ [1979] / ‘Hans Kelsens Rechtsanwendungslehre (Entwicklung, Mehrdeutigkeiten, offene Probleme, Perspektiven)’ [1986] / ‘Geltung des Rechts – Wirksamkeit des Rechts’ [1978] / ‘Heterogeneität & Geltung des Rechts’ [1979] / ‘Hans Kelsens’ Reine Rechtslehre – gestern, heute, morgen’ [1988] / ‘Für die Selbständigkeit der Rechtspolitik’ [1985] / ‘Die Gewaltenteilung (Ideologie & Utopie im politischen Denken)’ [1984] / ‘Rechtskultur – Denkkultur’ [1988] // ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN / REZENSIONEN [by & on the author

Less effective selection leads to larger genomes

International audienceThe evolutionary origin of the striking genome size variations found in eukaryotes remains enigmatic. The effective size of populations, by controlling selection efficacy, is expected to be a key parameter underlying genome size evolution. However, this hypothesis has proved difficult to investigate using empirical datasets. Here, we tested this hypothesis using twenty-two de novo transcriptomes and low-coverage genomes of asellid isopods, which represent eleven independent habitat shifts from surface water to resource-poor groundwater. We show that these habitat shifts are associated with higher transcriptome-wide dN/dS. After ruling out the role of positive selection and pseudogenization, we show that these transcriptome-wide dN/dS increases are the consequence of a reduction in selection efficacy imposed by the smaller effective population size of subterranean species. This reduction is paralleled by an important increase in genome size (25% increase on average), an increase also confirmed in subterranean decapods and mollusks. We also control for an adaptive impact of genome size on life history traits but find no correlation between body size, or growth rate, and genome size. We show instead that the independent increases in genome size measured in subterranean isopods are the direct consequence of increasing invasion rates by repeated elements, which are less efficiently purged out by purifying selection. Contrary to selection efficacy, polymorphism is not correlated to genome size. We propose that recent demographic fluctuations and the difficulty to observe polymorphism variations in polymorphism-poor species can obfuscate the link between effective population size and genome size when polymorphism data is used alone