Influence of fine structure and envelope variability on gap-duration discrimination thresholds

The goal of the study was to investigate whether the temporal resolution of the auditory system is influenced by the variability of the stimulus envelope. To do so, the ability to detect an increment in the duration of a temporal gap (the test gap) was measured with an adaptive 3-IFC procedure. The stimulus consisted of a series of 10-ms broadband noise pulses. The pulses were separated by a 10-ms silent period, or temporal gap. In the main experiments, the test gap was either the first or the last gap in a series of 21 pulses. The variability in the stimulus' envelope was controlled directly by applying a jitter to the onset of the individual pulses in the pulse trains. Additionally, the stimuli were presented with different fine structure variabilities which also induced differences in the variability of the envelope. The gap-discrimination thresholds for the jittered noise pulse trains showed strong dependence on the amount of jitter as long as the jitter was applied randomly leading to a different pattern for every stimulus. When the jitter was applied as a frozen jitter resulting in a constant pattern of pulses, the thresholds did not increase significantly. A similar result was obtained for the different fine structure variabilities. A frozen fine structure led to thresholds about 1 ms lower than those obtained with random noise stimuli. A measure for the envelope variability was provided by calculating the variances of the envelope spectrum of the gammatone-filtered stimuli. The results of the calculations show a qualitative correspondence to the experimental results

Different effect of mycorrhizal inoculation in direct and indirect reclamation of spoil banks

Spoil banks generated during coal mining are usually reclaimed by layering of fertile soil over original barren clay (co called indirect reclamation). This well-proven method is effective from the aspect of vegetation establishment and production, but it is very expensive. Direct reclamation of spoil bank clay promises much cheaper approach, yet its success is uncertain and the process might be rather long-term.This two-year field study aimed to assess the effect of application of commercially produced inoculum of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) Symbivit® on growth of two plant species commonly used for reclamation (Lotus corniculatus and Arrhenatherum elatius) sown on three different substrates: organic substrate (mixture of papermill waste, tree-bark and compost) and loess (both substrates typical for indirect reclamation) and original spoil bank clays (simulation of direct reclamation). On organic substrate and loess, A. elatius outcompeted the legume and established 100 % cover in all treatments. The effect of mycorrhizal inoculation was not observed. In contrast, on clay both species established successfully. The produced biomass and cover were, however, substantially lower compared to organic substrate and loess. In clay the positive effect of introduced AMF on plant was observed.Mycorrhizal inoculation was useful for supporting plant growth at direct reclamation. Direct reclamation in itself seems suitable for small-scale application, i.e. in patches where indirect reclamation is inconvenient or more diverse vegetation is required. Key words: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; inoculum; clay; papermill waste; loess; Arrhenatherum elatius; Lotus corniculatu

Radiosektion: Computertomographie-assistierte Rekonstruktion eines erweiterten Suizids

Zusammenfassung: Erweiterte Suizide durch Schusswaffen sind häufig durch eine sorgfältige Fundortanalyse zu klären. Im dargestellten Fall wurde eine 38-jährige Frau in Rückenlage auf dem Bett im Schlafzimmer aufgefunden. Im Bereich der linken Brust fand sich eine rundliche Einschusswunde. Neben dem Bett wurde eine Schusswaffe gefunden. Im Wohnzimmer lag ein 40-jähriger Mann in Bauchlage auf der Erde in einer größeren Blutlache. Ein unvollendeter Abschiedsbrief fand sich auf dem Esstisch. Nach der äußeren Leichenschau am Fundort erfolgte eine Röntgenschichtuntersuchung. Hierdurch wurde bei der Frau ein absteigender Schusskanal von der linken Brust durch die Herzspitze dargestellt. Das Projektil konnte im Rippenzwischenraum nahe der Wirbelsäule lokalisiert werden. Bei dem Mann wurden ein Schusskanal durch den harten Gaumen und ein Projektil in der Schädelhöhle festgestellt; dieses lag nicht in einer Linie mit dem Schusskanal, sodass ein "Ringelschuss" diagnostiziert wurde. Die nachfolgende Sektion beider Leichen bestätigte die Befunde. Die bei der Autopsie sichergestellten Projektile konnten durch ballistische Untersuchungen der am Ereignisort sichergestellten Waffe zugeordnet werde

An efficient quantum algorithm for the hidden subgroup problem in extraspecial groups

Extraspecial groups form a remarkable subclass of p-groups. They are also present in quantum information theory, in particular in quantum error correction. We give here a polynomial time quantum algorithm for finding hidden subgroups in extraspecial groups. Our approach is quite different from the recent algorithms presented in [17] and [2] for the Heisenberg group, the extraspecial p-group of size p3 and exponent p. Exploiting certain nice automorphisms of the extraspecial groups we define specific group actions which are used to reduce the problem to hidden subgroup instances in abelian groups that can be dealt with directly.Comment: 10 page

Processor Allocation for Optimistic Parallelization of Irregular Programs

Optimistic parallelization is a promising approach for the parallelization of irregular algorithms: potentially interfering tasks are launched dynamically, and the runtime system detects conflicts between concurrent activities, aborting and rolling back conflicting tasks. However, parallelism in irregular algorithms is very complex. In a regular algorithm like dense matrix multiplication, the amount of parallelism can usually be expressed as a function of the problem size, so it is reasonably straightforward to determine how many processors should be allocated to execute a regular algorithm of a certain size (this is called the processor allocation problem). In contrast, parallelism in irregular algorithms can be a function of input parameters, and the amount of parallelism can vary dramatically during the execution of the irregular algorithm. Therefore, the processor allocation problem for irregular algorithms is very difficult. In this paper, we describe the first systematic strategy for addressing this problem. Our approach is based on a construct called the conflict graph, which (i) provides insight into the amount of parallelism that can be extracted from an irregular algorithm, and (ii) can be used to address the processor allocation problem for irregular algorithms. We show that this problem is related to a generalization of the unfriendly seating problem and, by extending Tur\'an's theorem, we obtain a worst-case class of problems for optimistic parallelization, which we use to derive a lower bound on the exploitable parallelism. Finally, using some theoretically derived properties and some experimental facts, we design a quick and stable control strategy for solving the processor allocation problem heuristically.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, extended version of SPAA 2011 brief announcemen

Determinación de los índices de salud nutricional de la leche fresca de bovino mediante espectroscopía de infrarrojo cercano

Bovine milk is one of the most complete foods that exist. During the last decades, milk FA have shown to improve human health due to the reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease and related pathologies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) reflectance analysis to predict the nutritional value, fatty acid (FA) composition, and health index of fresh milk from dairy cows of pastoral systems. The prediction of Atherogenicity and Thrombogenicity indexes, along with other FA ratios in fresh milk samples by NIRS were precise and accurate. In addition, the calibration model obtained by NIRS provides an opportunity for the routine quantification of milk’s healthy FA such as omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), with applications in the dairy industry for food labeling, and at the farm level for management of the dairy cow’s diet.La leche bovina es uno de los alimentos más completos que existe. Durante la última década, se ha demostrado que los ácidos grasos de la leche pueden mejorar la salud humana, a través de la reducción del riesgo de enfermedades cardiovasculares y patologías asociadas. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar la factibilidad del análisis de reflectancia NIRS para predecir valor nutricional, composición de ácidos grasos e índices de salud de leche fresca de vacas de sistemas lecheros pastoriles. La predicción por NIRS del índice aterogénico y trombogénico, de ácidos grasos en muestras de leche fresca, fueron precisos. Por tanto, el modelo de calibración obtenido por NIRS representa una oportunidad para la cuantificación rutinaria de los ácidos grasos saludables de la leche como omega-3 y CLA, con aplicaciones en la industria lechera para el etiquetado nutricional y a nivel de lechería para el manejo de la alimentación de las vacas

Decoupling algorithms from schedules for easy optimization of image processing pipelines

Using existing programming tools, writing high-performance image processing code requires sacrificing readability, portability, and modularity. We argue that this is a consequence of conflating what computations define the algorithm, with decisions about storage and the order of computation. We refer to these latter two concerns as the schedule, including choices of tiling, fusion, recomputation vs. storage, vectorization, and parallelism. We propose a representation for feed-forward imaging pipelines that separates the algorithm from its schedule, enabling high-performance without sacrificing code clarity. This decoupling simplifies the algorithm specification: images and intermediate buffers become functions over an infinite integer domain, with no explicit storage or boundary conditions. Imaging pipelines are compositions of functions. Programmers separately specify scheduling strategies for the various functions composing the algorithm, which allows them to efficiently explore different optimizations without changing the algorithmic code. We demonstrate the power of this representation by expressing a range of recent image processing applications in an embedded domain specific language called Halide, and compiling them for ARM, x86, and GPUs. Our compiler targets SIMD units, multiple cores, and complex memory hierarchies. We demonstrate that it can handle algorithms such as a camera raw pipeline, the bilateral grid, fast local Laplacian filtering, and image segmentation. The algorithms expressed in our language are both shorter and faster than state-of-the-art implementations.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0964004)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0964218)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0832997)United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-SC0005288)Cognex CorporationAdobe System

Endoplasmic reticulum stress signalling – from basic mechanisms to clinical applications

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a membranous intracellular organelle and the first compartment of the secretory pathway. As such, the ER contributes to the production and folding of approximately one‐third of cellular proteins, and is thus inextricably linked to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and the fine balance between health and disease. Specific ER stress signalling pathways, collectively known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), are required for maintaining ER homeostasis. The UPR is triggered when ER protein folding capacity is overwhelmed by cellular demand and the UPR initially aims to restore ER homeostasis and normal cellular functions. However, if this fails, then the UPR triggers cell death. In this review, we provide a UPR signalling‐centric view of ER functions, from the ER's discovery to the latest advancements in the understanding of ER and UPR biology. Our review provides a synthesis of intracellular ER signalling revolving around proteostasis and the UPR, its impact on other organelles and cellular behaviour, its multifaceted and dynamic response to stress and its role in physiology, before finally exploring the potential exploitation of this knowledge to tackle unresolved biological questions and address unmet biomedical needs. Thus, we provide an integrated and global view of existing literature on ER signalling pathways and their use for therapeutic purposes