1,780 research outputs found
N,N'-dimethylperylene-3,4,9,10-bis(dicarboximide) on alkali halide(001) surfaces
The growth of N,N'-dimethylperylene-3,4,9,10-bis(dicarboximide) (DiMe-PTCDI)
on KBr(001) and NaCl(001) surfaces has been studied. Experimental results have
been achieved using frequency modulation atomic force microscopy at room
temperature under ultra-high vacuum conditions. On both substrates, DiMe-PTCDI
forms molecular wires with a width of 10 nm, typically, and a length of up to
600 nm at low coverages. All wires grow along the [110] direction (or
[10] direction, respectively) of the alkali halide (001) substrates.
There is no wetting layer of molecules: Atomic resolution of the substrates can
be achieved between the wires. The wires are mobile on KBr surface but
substantially more stable on NaCl. A p(2 x 2) superstructure in brickwall
arrangement on the ionic crystal surfaces is proposed based on electrostatic
considerations. Calculations and Monte-Carlo simulations using empirical
potentials reveal possible growth mechanisms for molecules within the first
layer for both substrates, also showing a significantly higher binding energy
for NaCl(001). For KBr, the p(2 x 2) superstructure is confirmed by the
simulations, for NaCl, a less dense, incommensurate superstructure is
predicted.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Before the First Shot is Fired: Hypothetical Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution to Avoid a Re-Enactment of the Hatfields and the McCoys - Kirkham v. Wright
Kirkham v. Wright was chosen as the subject case because it represents the type of dispute that is extremely well suited to resolution through the ADR process. While some argument exists about the law in Kirkham,2 the bulk of the dispute revolves around the application of the law to the facts.\u27 Furthermore, this case was eventually settled after remand,4 which leads to the conclusion that a settlement may have been possible earlier. Additionally, while the attorneys involved would not disclose the legal costs, it is a safe estimate that they ran into the tens of thousands of dollars.\u2
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Relation of Cognitive Reserve and Task Performance to Expression of Regional Covariance Networks in an Event-Related fMRI Study of Nonverbal Memory
Cognitive reserve (CR) has been established as a mechanism that can explain individual differences in the clinical manifestation of neural changes associated with aging or neurodegenerative diseases. CR may represent individual differences in how tasks are processed (i.e., differences in the component processes), or in the underlying neural circuitry (of the component processes). CR may be a function of innate differences or differential life experiences. To investigate to what extent CR can account for individual differences in brain activation and task performance, we used fMRI to image healthy young individuals while performing a nonverbal memory task. We used IQ estimates as a proxy for CR. During both study and test phase of the task, we identified regional covariance patterns whose change in subject expression across two task conditions correlated with performance and CR. Common brain regions in both activation patterns were suggestive of a brain network previously found to underlie overt and covert shifts of spatial attention. After partialing out the influence of task performance variables, this network still showed an association with the CR, i.e., there were reserve-related physiological differences that presumably would persist were there no subject differences in task performance. This suggests that this network may represent a neural correlate of CR
CCuantuMM: Cycle-Consistent Quantum-Hybrid Matching of Multiple Shapes
Jointly matching multiple, non-rigidly deformed 3D shapes is a challenging,
-hard problem. A perfect matching is necessarily
cycle-consistent: Following the pairwise point correspondences along several
shapes must end up at the starting vertex of the original shape. Unfortunately,
existing quantum shape-matching methods do not support multiple shapes and even
less cycle consistency. This paper addresses the open challenges and introduces
the first quantum-hybrid approach for 3D shape multi-matching; in addition, it
is also cycle-consistent. Its iterative formulation is admissible to modern
adiabatic quantum hardware and scales linearly with the total number of input
shapes. Both these characteristics are achieved by reducing the -shape case
to a sequence of three-shape matchings, the derivation of which is our main
technical contribution. Thanks to quantum annealing, high-quality solutions
with low energy are retrieved for the intermediate -hard
objectives. On benchmark datasets, the proposed approach significantly
outperforms extensions to multi-shape matching of a previous quantum-hybrid
two-shape matching method and is on-par with classical multi-matching methods.Comment: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2023; 22 pages, 24
figures and 5 tables; Project page: https://4dqv.mpi-inf.mpg.de/CCuantuMM
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An Event-Related fMRI Study of the Neurobehavioral Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Performance of a Delayed-Match-to-Sample Task
Eighteen subjects (ages 18-35) underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) while performing a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task before and immediately after 48 h of sustained wakefulness. The DMS trial events were: a 3-s study period of either a one-, three-, or six-letter visual array; a 7-s retention interval; and a 3-s probe period, where a button press indicated whether the probe letter was in the study array. Ordinal Trend Canonical Variates Analysis (OrT CVA) was applied to the data from the probe period for trials with six-letter study lists prior to and immediately following sleep deprivation to find an activation pattern whose expression decreased with sleep deprivation in as many subjects as possible, while being present in both conditions. The first principal component of the OrT analysis identified a covariance pattern whose expression decreased as a function of sleep deprivation in 17 of 18 subjects (p<0.001). While overall expression of the pattern showed a systematic decrease with sleep deprivation, the brain regions that make up the pattern show covarying increases and decreases in activation. Regions that decreased their activation were noted in the parietal (BA 7 and 40), temporal (BA 37, 38 and 39) and occipital (BA 18 and 19) lobes; regions that increased their activation were noted in the cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus and the anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 32). The reduction in pattern expression with sleep deprivation for each subject was related to the change in performance on the DMS task. Subject decreases in pattern expression were correlated with reductions in recognition accuracy (p<0.05), increased intra-individual variability in reaction time (p<0.005) and increased lapsing (p<0.005)
Crustal thinning in the northern Tyrrhenian Rift: Insights from multichannel and wide-angle seismic data across the basin
Extension of the continental lithosphere leads to the formation of rift basins or rifted continental margins if breakup occurs. Seismic investigations have repeatedly shown that conjugate margins have asymmetric tectonic structures and different amount of extension and crustal thinning. Here we compare two coincident wide-angle and multichannel seismic profiles across the northern Tyrrhenian rift system sampling crust that underwent different stages of extension from north to south and from the flanks to the basin center. Tomographic inversion reveals that the crust has thinned homogeneously from ~24 km to ~17 km between the Corsica Margin and the Latium Margin implying a β factor of ~1.3–1.5. On the transect 80 km to the south, the crust thinned from ~24 km beneath Sardinia to a maximum of ~11 km in the eastern region near the Campania Margin (β factor of ~2.2). The increased crustal thinning is accompanied by a zone of reduced velocities in the upper crust that expands progressively toward the southeast. We interpret that the velocity reduction is related to rock fracturing caused by a higher degree of brittle faulting, as observed on multichannel seismic images. Locally, basalt flows are imaged intruding sediment in this zone, and heat flow values locally exceed 100 mW/m2. Velocities within the entire crust range 4.0–6.7 km/s, which are typical for continental rocks and indicate that significant rift-related magmatic underplating may not be present. The characteristics of the pre-tectonic, syn-tectonic and post-tectonic sedimentary units allow us to infer the spatial and temporal evolution of active rifting. In the western part of the southern transect, thick postrift sediments were deposited in half grabens that are bounded by large fault blocks. Fault spacing and block size diminish to the east as crustal thinning increases. Recent tectonic activity is expressed by faults cutting the seafloor in the east, near the mainland of Italy. The two transects show the evolution from the less extended rift in the north with a fairly symmetric conjugate structure to the asymmetric margins farther south. This structural evolution is consistent with W-E rift propagation and southward increasing extension rates
Sex-specific phenotypes of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in mice
Background Thyroid dysfunction is more common in the female population,
however, the impact of sex on disease characteristics has rarely been
addressed. Using a murine model, we asked whether sex has an influence on
phenotypes, thyroid hormone status, and thyroid hormone tissue response in
hyper- and hypothyroidism. Methods Hypo- and hyperthyroidism were induced in 5
-month-old female and male wildtype C57BL/6N mice, by LoI/MMI/ClO4 − or T4
i.p. treatment over 7 weeks, and control animals underwent sham treatment (N =
8 animals/sex/treatment). Animals were investigated for impact of sex on body
weight, food and water intake, body temperature, heart rate, behaviour
(locomotor activity, motor coordination, and strength), liver function, serum
thyroid hormone status, and cellular TH effects on gene expression in brown
adipose tissue, heart, and liver. Results Male and female mice showed
significant differences in behavioural, functional, metabolic, biochemical,
and molecular traits of hyper- and hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism resulted in
increased locomotor activity in female mice but decreased muscle strength and
motor coordination preferably in male animals. Hypothyroidism led to increased
water intake in male but not female mice and significantly higher serum
cholesterol in male mice. Natural sex differences in body temperature, body
weight gain, food and water intake were preserved under hyperthyroid
conditions. In contrast, natural sex differences in heart rate disappeared
with TH excess and deprivation. The variations of hyper- or hypothyroid traits
of male and female mice were not explained by classical T3/T4 serum state. TH
serum concentrations were significantly increased in female mice under
hyperthyroidism, but no sex differences were found under eu- or hypothyroid
conditions. Interestingly, analysis of expression of TH target genes and TH
transporters revealed little sex dependency in heart, while sex differences in
target genes were present in liver and brown adipose tissue in line with
altered functional and metabolic traits of hyper- and hypothyroidism.
Conclusions These data demonstrate that the phenotypes of hypo- and
hyperthyroidism differ between male and female mice and indicate that sex is
an important modifier of phenotypic manifestations
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