A framework for the first‑person internal sensation of visual perception in mammals and a comparable circuitry for olfactory perception in Drosophila

Perception is a first-person internal sensation induced within the nervous system at the time of arrival of sensory stimuli from objects in the environment. Lack of access to the first-person properties has limited viewing perception as an emergent property and it is currently being studied using third-person observed findings from various levels. One feasible approach to understand its mechanism is to build a hypothesis for the specific conditions and required circuit features of the nodal points where the mechanistic operation of perception take place for one type of sensation in one species and to verify it for the presence of comparable circuit properties for perceiving a different sensation in a different species. The present work explains visual perception in mammalian nervous system from a first-person frame of reference and provides explanations for the homogeneity of perception of visual stimuli above flicker fusion frequency, the perception of objects at locations different from their actual position, the smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements, the perception of object borders, and perception of pressure phosphenes. Using results from temporal resolution studies and the known details of visual cortical circuitry, explanations are provided for (a) the perception of rapidly changing visual stimuli, (b) how the perception of objects occurs in the correct orientation even though, according to the third-person view, activity from the visual stimulus reaches the cortices in an inverted manner and (c) the functional significance of well-conserved columnar organization of the visual cortex. A comparable circuitry detected in a different nervous system in a remote species-the olfactory circuitry of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster-provides an opportunity to explore circuit functions using genetic manipulations, which, along with high-resolution microscopic techniques and lipid membrane interaction studies, will be able to verify the structure-function details of the presented mechanism of perception

State-of-the-practice in product configuration - a survey of 10 cases in the Finnish industry

The design and production of goods that satisfy the special needs of individual customers are of central interest to the European industry. A major trend is to improve customer specific adaptation with configurable products. We are interested in the methods, practices and tools that support product configuration tasks. The research described in this paper is meant to guide our future work. We have 1) established a framework for understanding the problem area of product configuration in a fairly wide sense by identifying a number of factors and 2) carried out ten actual case studies using the proposed framework. Our framework consists of five problem areas that are further refined into a number of factors characterising the areas. The problem areas cover the economic importance of product configuration, the complexity of the configuration task, the nature of the configuration process, long term management of configuration related product knowledge and the interfaces to other processes ..

Therapeutic genome editing: prospects and challenges

Available in PMC 2015 July 06Recent advances in the development of genome editing technologies based on programmable nucleases have substantially improved our ability to make precise changes in the genomes of eukaryotic cells. Genome editing is already broadening our ability to elucidate the contribution of genetics to disease by facilitating the creation of more accurate cellular and animal models of pathological processes. A particularly tantalizing application of programmable nucleases is the potential to directly correct genetic mutations in affected tissues and cells to treat diseases that are refractory to traditional therapies. Here we discuss current progress toward developing programmable nuclease–based therapies as well as future prospects and challenges.Robert MetcalfeSimons FoundationMerkin Family Foundation for Stem Cell ResearchNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Waterman Award)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, grant number 1122374)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Award number T32GM007753)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ((NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award (DP1-MH100706))W. M. Keck FoundationNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U.S.) (NIH Transformative R01 grant (R01-NS 07312401))Damon Runyon Cancer Research FoundationSearle Scholars ProgramEsther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund, Inc.Vallee Foundatio