577 research outputs found
The responses of single neurons in the temporal visual cortical areas of the macaque when more than one stimulus is present in the receptive field
Neurons in the temporal visual cortical areas of primates have large receptive fields, which can show considerable selectivity for what the stimulus is irrespective of exactly where it is in the visual field. This is called translation invariance. However, such results have been found when there is only one stimulus in the visual field. The question arises of how the visual system operates in a cluttered environment. To investigate this we measured the responses of neurons with face-selective responses in the cortex in the anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus of rhesus macaques performing a visual fixation task. We found that the response of neurons to an effective face centred 8.5° from the fovea was decreased to 71 if an ineffective face stimulus for that cell was present at the fovea. In a similar way, introduction of a parafoveal ineffective face stimulus decreased the responses of these neurons to an effective face stimulus at the fovea to 75. In addition to these interactions, it was found that an effective stimulus object at the fovea produced a larger response than when it was parafoveal, and that this weighting towards an object at the fovea was also seen when more than one object was present in the visual field. The implication of this weighting of the responses of neurons towards objects at the fovea, even in an environment with more than one object present, is that the output of the visual system provides information to subsequent systems particularly about objects at the fovea, so that learning about these objects (and less about other objects elsewhere in the visual field) is facilitated. © 1995 Springer-Verlag
Evaluation of the World Health Organisation' antibody-testing strategy for the individual patient diagnosis of HIV infection (strategy Ill)
No Abstract
Gold standard validation of fecal egg counts and larval cultures as diagnostic tools in horses
Reconstruction of superoperators from incomplete measurements
We present strategies how to reconstruct (estimate) properties of a quantum
channel described by the map E based on incomplete measurements. In a
particular case of a qubit channel a complete reconstruction of the map E can
be performed via complete tomography of four output states E[rho_j ] that
originate from a set of four linearly independent test states j (j = 1, 2, 3,
4) at the input of the channel. We study the situation when less than four
linearly independent states are transmitted via the channel and measured at the
output. We present strategies how to reconstruct the channel when just one, two
or three states are transmitted via the channel. In particular, we show that if
just one state is transmitted via the channel then the best reconstruction can
be achieved when this state is a total mixture described by the density
operator rho = I/2. To improve the reconstruction procedure one has to send via
the channel more states. The best strategy is to complement the total mixture
with pure states that are mutually orthogonal in the sense of the Bloch-sphere
representation. We show that unitary transformations (channels) can be uniquely
reconstructed (determined) based on the information of how three properly
chosen input states are transformed under the action of the channel.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Two-dimensional two-component plasma with adsorbing impurities
We study the behavior of the two-dimensional two-component plasma in the
presence of some adsorbing impurities. Using a solvable model, we find analytic
expressions for the thermodynamic properties of the plasma such as the -body
densities, the grand potential, and the pressure. We specialize in the case
where there are one or two adsorbing point impurities in the plasma, and in the
case where there are one or two parallel adsorbing lines. In the former case we
study the effective interaction between the impurities, due to the charge
redistribution around them. The latter case is a model for electrodes with
adsorbing sticky sites on their surface
Damage Spreading During Domain Growth
We study damage spreading in models of two-dimensional systems undergoing
first order phase transitions. We consider several models from the same
non-conserved order parameter universality class, and find unexpected
differences between them. An exact solution of the Ohta-Jasnow-Kawasaki model
yields the damage growth law , where in
dimensions. In contrast, time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations and Ising
simulations in using heat-bath dynamics show power-law growth, but with
an exponent of approximately , independent of the system sizes studied.
In marked contrast, Metropolis dynamics shows damage growing via , although the damage difference grows as . PACS: 64.60.-i, 05.50.+qComment: 4 pags of revtex3 + 3 postscript files appended as a compressed and
uuencoded file. UIB940320
Unconstrained Hamiltonian Formulation of SU(2) Gluodynamics
SU(2) Yang-Mills field theory is considered in the framework of the
generalized Hamiltonian approach and the equivalent unconstrained system is
obtained using the method of Hamiltonian reduction. A canonical transformation
to a set of adapted coordinates is performed in terms of which the
Abelianization of the Gauss law constraints reduces to an algebraic operation
and the pure gauge degrees of freedom drop out from the Hamiltonian after
projection onto the constraint shell. For the remaining gauge invariant fields
two representations are introduced where the three fields which transform as
scalars under spatial rotations are separated from the three rotational fields.
An effective low energy nonlinear sigma model type Lagrangian is derived which
out of the six physical fields involves only one of the three scalar fields and
two rotational fields summarized in a unit vector. Its possible relation to the
effective Lagrangian proposed recently by Faddeev and Niemi is discussed.
Finally the unconstrained analog of the well-known nonnormalizable groundstate
wave functional which solves the Schr\"odinger equation with zero energy is
given and analysed in the strong coupling limit.Comment: 20 pages REVTEX, no figures; final version to appear in Phys. Rev. D;
minor changes, notations simplifie
The Influence of the Degree of Heterogeneity on the Elastic Properties of Random Sphere Packings
The macroscopic mechanical properties of colloidal particle gels strongly
depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles. Experiments have shown
that more heterogeneous microstructures exhibit up to one order of magnitude
higher elastic properties than their more homogeneous counterparts at equal
volume fraction. In this paper, packings of spherical particles are used as
model structures to computationally investigate the elastic properties of
coagulated particle gels as a function of their degree of heterogeneity. The
discrete element model comprises a linear elastic contact law, particle bonding
and damping. The simulation parameters were calibrated using a homogeneous and
a heterogeneous microstructure originating from earlier Brownian dynamics
simulations. A systematic study of the elastic properties as a function of the
degree of heterogeneity was performed using two sets of microstructures
obtained from Brownian dynamics simulation and from the void expansion method.
Both sets cover a broad and to a large extent overlapping range of degrees of
heterogeneity. The simulations have shown that the elastic properties as a
function of the degree of heterogeneity are independent of the structure
generation algorithm and that the relation between the shear modulus and the
degree of heterogeneity can be well described by a power law. This suggests the
presence of a critical degree of heterogeneity and, therefore, a phase
transition between a phase with finite and one with zero elastic properties.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; Granular Matter (published online: 11. February
2012
Do Seasonal Glucocorticoid Changes Depend on Reproductive Investment? A Comparative Approach in Birds
Animals go through different life history stages such as reproduction, moult, or migration, of which some are more energy-demanding than others. Baseline concentrations of glucocorticoid hormones increase during moderate, predictable challenges and thus are expected to be higher when seasonal energy demands increase, such as during reproduction. By contrast, stress-induced glucocorticoids prioritize a survival mode that includes reproductive inhibition. Thus, many species down-regulate stress-induced glucocorticoid concentrations during the breeding season. Interspecific variation in glucocorticoid levels during reproduction has been successfully mapped onto reproductive investment, with species investing strongly in current reproduction (fast pace of life) showing higher baseline and lower stress-induced glucocorticoid concentrations than species that prioritize future reproduction over current attempts (slow pace of life). Here we test the >glucocorticoid seasonal plasticity hypothesis>, in which we propose that interspecific variation in seasonal changes in glucocorticoid concentrations from the non-breeding to the breeding season will be related to the degree of reproductive investment (and thus pace of life). We extracted population means for baseline (for 54 species) and stress-induced glucocorticoids (for 32 species) for the breeding and the non-breeding seasons from the database >HormoneBase>, also calculating seasonal glucocorticoid changes. We focused on birds because this group offered the largest sample size. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, we first showed that species differed consistently in both average glucocorticoid concentrations and their changes between the two seasons, while controlling for sex, latitude, and hemisphere. Second, as predicted seasonal changes in baseline glucocorticoids were explained by clutch size (our proxy for reproductive investment), with species laying larger clutches showing a greater increase during the breeding season-especially in passerine species. In contrast, changes in seasonal stress-induced levels were not explained by clutch size, but sample sizes were more limited. Our findings highlight that seasonal changes in baseline glucocorticoids are associated with a species' reproductive investment, representing an overlooked physiological trait that may underlie the pace of life
Modular Equations and Distortion Functions
Modular equations occur in number theory, but it is less known that such
equations also occur in the study of deformation properties of quasiconformal
mappings. The authors study two important plane quasiconformal distortion
functions, obtaining monotonicity and convexity properties, and finding sharp
bounds for them. Applications are provided that relate to the quasiconformal
Schwarz Lemma and to Schottky's Theorem. These results also yield new bounds
for singular values of complete elliptic integrals.Comment: 23 page
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