903 research outputs found
Recording advances for neural prosthetics
An important challenge for neural prosthetics research is to record from populations of neurons over long periods of time, ideally for the lifetime of the patient. Two new advances toward this goal are described, the use of local field potentials (LFPs) and autonomously positioned recording electrodes. LFPs are the composite extracellular potential field from several hundreds of neurons around the electrode tip. LFP recordings can be maintained for longer periods of time than single cell recordings. We find that similar information can be decoded from LFP and spike recordings, with better performance for state decodes with LFPs and, depending on the area, equivalent or slightly less than equivalent performance for signaling the direction of planned movements. Movable electrodes in microdrives can be adjusted in the tissue to optimize recordings, but their movements must be automated to be a practical benefit to patients. We have developed automation algorithms and a meso-scale autonomous electrode testbed, and demonstrated that this system can autonomously isolate and maintain the recorded signal quality of single cells in the cortex of awake, behaving monkeys. These two advances show promise for developing very long term recording for neural prosthetic applications
Search for Optical Pulsation in M82 X-2
We report on a search for optical pulsation from M82 X-2 over a range of periods. M82 X-2 is an X-ray pulsar with a 1.37s average spin period and a 2.5 day sinusoidal modulation. The observations were done with the ARray Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry at the 200 inch Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory. We performed H test and χ^2 statistical analysis. No significant optical pulsations were found in the wavelength range of 3000–11000 Å with a pulsation period between 1.36262 and 1.37462 s. We found an upper limit on pulsed emission in the 4000–8000 Å wavelength range to be fainter than ~20.5 mag_(AB) , corresponding to ~23 μJy
A titanium-nitride near-infrared kinetic inductance photon-counting detector and its anomalous electrodynamics
We demonstrate single-photon counting at 1550 nm with titanium-nitride (TiN)
microwave kinetic inductance detectors. Energy resolution of 0.4 eV and
arrival-time resolution of 1.2 microseconds are achieved. 0-, 1-, 2-photon
events are resolved and shown to follow Poisson statistics. We find that the
temperature-dependent frequency shift deviates from the Mattis-Bardeen theory,
and the dissipation response shows a shorter decay time than the frequency
response at low temperatures. We suggest that the observed anomalous
electrodynamics may be related to quasiparticle traps or subgap states in the
disordered TiN films. Finally, the electron density-of-states is derived from
the pulse response.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Characteristics and distribution of high- and low-affinity alpha bungarotoxin binding sites in the rat hypothalamus
Afin d'évaluer l'importance du ligand de l'I-αBTX dans l'hypothalamus et la présence possible de récepteurs nicotiniques, des études immunocytochimiques et autoradiographiques ont été réalisées. Les résultats suggèrent que ces sites de fixation ont un rôle important dans l'organisation fonctionnelle du système neurosécréteur des vasopressine et oxytocine
Characterization Of Commercial Magnetorheological Fluids At High Shear Rate: Influence Of The Gap
This paper reports the experimental tests on the behaviour of a commercial MR fluid at high shear rates and the effect of the gap. Three gaps were considered at multiple magnetic fields and shear rates. From an extended set of almost two hundred experimental flow curves, a set of parameters for the apparent viscosity are retrieved by using the Ostwald de Waele model for non-Newtonian fluids. It is possible to simplify the parameter correlation by making the following considerations: the consistency of the model depends only on the magnetic field, the flow index depends on the fluid type and the gap shows an important effect only at null or very low magnetic fields. This lead to a simple and useful model, especially in the design phase of a MR based product. During the off state, with no applied field, it is possible to use a standard viscous model. During the active state, with high magnetic field, a strong non-Newtonian nature becomes prevalent over the viscous one even at very high shear rate; the magnetic field dominates the apparent viscosity change, while the gap does not play any relevant role on the system behaviour. This simple assumption allows the designer to dimension the gap only considering the non-active state, as in standard viscous systems, and taking into account only the magnetic effect in the active state, where the gap does not change the proposed fluid model
A Smooth Interface Method for Simulating Liquid Crystal Colloid Dispersions
A new method is presented for mesoscopic simulations of particle dispersions
in liquid crystal solvents. It allows efficient first-principle simulations of
the dispersions involving many particles with many-body interactions mediated
by the solvents. Demonstrations have been performed for the aggregation of
colloid dispersions in two-dimensional nematic and smectic-C* solvents
neglecting hydrodynamic effects, which will be taken into account in the near
future.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Smectic ordering in liquid crystal - aerosil dispersions II. Scaling analysis
Liquid crystals offer many unique opportunities to study various phase
transitions with continuous symmetry in the presence of quenched random
disorder (QRD). The QRD arises from the presence of porous solids in the form
of a random gel network. Experimental and theoretical work support the view
that for fixed (static) inclusions, quasi-long-range smectic order is destroyed
for arbitrarily small volume fractions of the solid. However, the presence of
porous solids indicates that finite-size effects could play some role in
limiting long-range order. In an earlier work, the nematic - smectic-A
transition region of octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) and silica aerosils was
investigated calorimetrically. A detailed x-ray study of this system is
presented in the preceding Paper I, which indicates that pseudo-critical
scaling behavior is observed. In the present paper, the role of finite-size
scaling and two-scale universality aspects of the 8CB+aerosil system are
presented and the dependence of the QRD strength on the aerosil density is
discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Companion paper to "Smectic ordering
in liquid crystal - aerosil dispersions I. X-ray scattering" by R.L. Leheny,
S. Park, R.J. Birgeneau, J.-L. Gallani, C.W. Garland, and G.S. Iannacchion
Simulating Particle Dispersions in Nematic Liquid-Crystal Solvents
A new method is presented for mesoscopic simulations of particle dispersions
in nematic liquid crystal solvents. It allows efficient first-principle
simulations of the dispersions involving many particles with many-body
interactions mediated by the solvents. A simple demonstration is shown for the
aggregation process of a two dimentional dispersion.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
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