A new empirical challenge for local theories of consciousness

Local theories of consciousness state that one is conscious of a feature if it is adequately represented and processed in sensory brain areas, given some background conditions. We challenge the core prediction of local theories based on recently discovered long-lasting postdictive effects demonstrating that features can be represented for hundreds of milliseconds in perceptual areas without being consciously perceived. Unlike previous empirical data aimed against local theories, proponents of local theories cannot explain these effects away by conjecturing that subjects are phenomenally conscious of features that they cannot report. Only a strong and counterintuitive version of this claim can account for long-lasting postdictive effects. Although possible, we argue that adopting this strong version of the “overflow hypothesis” would have the effect of nullifying the weight of the evidence taken to support local theories of consciousness in the first place. We also discuss several alternative explanations that proponents of local theories could offer

Legal Feasibility of Schengen-like Agreements in European Energy Policy: The Cases of Nuclear Cooperation and Gas Security of Supply

European energy policy is characterized by a complex allocation of authority between the European Union and its Member States which results in an intricate interplay of regulatory competence. Knowing the difficulties European countries face in coordinating and proposing common solutions in the area of energy, there is the urgent need to question the legal foundations underlying the decisionmaking process. Institutional paralysis, low reactivity to events and changes as well as systematic political horse-trading across all questions call for an alternative framework allowing some pioneering Member States to promote ad hoc common policies escaping the formal and procedural requirements of EU law. Our paper assesses the legal feasibility of short-run differentiation by means of partial international agreements inspired by the Schengen regime, namely entirely outside the EU framework. The key challenge from a legal point of view is to assess the substantive compatibility of such agreements in energy with the existing rules of the Union. Short run differentiation in energy cannot indeed be assessed at a high level of generalities. We therefore take two areas where legally-binding coordination at the sub-Union level is often called for: nuclear policy and gas security of supply. The possible substantive content of such cooperation is derived from the economic and political literature before legal feasibility is assessed. Our findings suggest that the scope for such agreements is limited for security of gas supply whereas it could be an improved cooperation device in certain areas of nuclear policy.Schengen

Analysis of the energy harvesting performance of a piezoelectric bender outside its resonance

When the frequency of the source of vibration of a piezolectric generator is significantly different from its eigenfrequency, the dielectric power losses become prominent and decrease the amount of power which is practically harvested. For off-resonance vibrating frequencies, the optimal operating conditions can be obtained with a Maximum Power Point Tracking method. This paper introduces complex phasors in the study of power conversion for piezoelectric generators. These complex phasors are used to describe three strategies which help simplify the tracking of the optimal generator output power for vibration frequencies which are away from resonance. Experimental results obtained on a prototype illustrate and confirm the approach with the phasor approaches illustrate and confirm the success of the proposed optimal power tracking strategies. Finally, we show that the efficiency results of each strategy depend on whether they are used inside or outside a frequency bandwidth around the eigenfrequency, and that the length of this bandwidth depends on the excitation amplitude.IRCICA Stimtac Project, INRIA Mint Project

Sharp large deviations and concentration inequalities for the number of descents in a random permutation

The goal of this paper is to go further in the analysis of the behavior of the number of descents in a random permutation. Via two different approaches relying on a suitable martingale decomposition or on the Irwin-Hall distribution, we prove that the number of descents satisfies a sharp large deviation principle. A very precise concentration inequality involving the rate function in the large deviation principle is also provided

Cell detachment and label-free cell sorting using modulated surface acoustic waves (SAW) in droplet-based microfluidics

We present a droplet-based surface acoustic wave (SAW) system designed to viably detach biological cells from a surface and sort cell types based on differences in adhesion strength (adhesion contrast), without the need to label cells with molecular markers. The system uses modulated SAW to generate pulsatile flows in the droplets and efficiently detach the cells, thereby minimizing SAW excitation power and exposure time. As a proof-of-principle, the system is shown to efficiently sort HEK 293 from A7r5 cells based on adhesion contrast. Results are obtained in minutes with sorting purity and efficiency reaching 97 % and 95 %, respectively.Comment: Accepted for publication in Lab on a Chi

sCD14 is not a bona-fide biomarker of microbial translocation in HIV-1 infected Africans living in Belgium.

OBJECTIVE: To compare microbial translocation and its biomarkers in HIV-1 infected African and Caucasian patients of the Liege AIDS Reference Center. DESIGN: The study is based on a cross-sectional dataset of HIV-infected patients treated at the Liege AIDS Reference Center. Groups of Caucasian and African patients have been randomly selected in order to be identical for sex, age and duration of treatment. METHODS: sCD14, Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP) and routine HIV-follow-up parameters were measured on plasma samples. RESULTS: High values of LPS and LBP were observed in both groups of patients without significant difference between them. High values of sCD14 were observed in 53.1% of Caucasians and only in 18.8% of African patients (p = 0.0042). A correlation between LPS and sCD14 was observed in Caucasians but not African patients. CONCLUSION: Our observation suggests that factors not related to microbial translocation are responsible for lower sCD14 value in Africans