12,092 research outputs found
How to Build a Dichoptic Presentation System That Includes an Eye Tracker
The presentation of different stimuli to the two eyes, dichoptic presentation, is essential for studies involving 3D vision and interocular suppression. There is a growing literature on the unique experimental value of pupillary and oculomotor measures, especially for research on interocular suppression. Although obtaining eye-tracking measures would thus benefit studies that use dichoptic presentation, the hardware essential for dichoptic presentation (e.g. mirrors) often interferes with high-quality eye tracking, especially when using a video-based eye tracker. We recently described an experimental setup that combines a standard dichoptic presentation system with an infrared eye tracker by using infrared-transparent mirrors1. The setup is compatible with standard monitors and eye trackers, easy to implement, and affordable (on the order of US$1,000). Relative to existing methods it has the benefits of not requiring special equipment and posing few limits on the nature and quality of the visual stimulus. Here we provide a visual guide to the construction and use of our setup
Unleashing Quantum Simulation Advantages: Hamiltonian Subspace Encoding for Resource Efficient Quantum Simulations
Number-conserved subspace encoding for fermionic Hamiltonians, which
exponentially reduces qubit cost, is necessary for quantum advantages in
variational quantum eigensolver (VQE). However, optimizing the trade-off
between qubit compression and increased measurement cost poses a challenge. By
employing the Gilbert-Varshamov bound on linear code, we optimize qubit scaling
and measurement cost for modes
electrons chemistry problems. The compression is implemented with the
Randomized Linear Encoding (RLE) algorithm on VQE for and LiH in
the 6-31G* and STO-3G/6-31G* basis respectively. The resulting subspace circuit
expressivity and trainability are enhanced with less circuit depth and higher
noise tolerance
An Army of Me: Sockpuppets in Online Discussion Communities
In online discussion communities, users can interact and share information
and opinions on a wide variety of topics. However, some users may create
multiple identities, or sockpuppets, and engage in undesired behavior by
deceiving others or manipulating discussions. In this work, we study
sockpuppetry across nine discussion communities, and show that sockpuppets
differ from ordinary users in terms of their posting behavior, linguistic
traits, as well as social network structure. Sockpuppets tend to start fewer
discussions, write shorter posts, use more personal pronouns such as "I", and
have more clustered ego-networks. Further, pairs of sockpuppets controlled by
the same individual are more likely to interact on the same discussion at the
same time than pairs of ordinary users. Our analysis suggests a taxonomy of
deceptive behavior in discussion communities. Pairs of sockpuppets can vary in
their deceptiveness, i.e., whether they pretend to be different users, or their
supportiveness, i.e., if they support arguments of other sockpuppets controlled
by the same user. We apply these findings to a series of prediction tasks,
notably, to identify whether a pair of accounts belongs to the same underlying
user or not. Altogether, this work presents a data-driven view of deception in
online discussion communities and paves the way towards the automatic detection
of sockpuppets.Comment: 26th International World Wide Web conference 2017 (WWW 2017
Transplantation of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor-Expressing Adult Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells Promotes Remyelination and Functional Recovery after SpinalCord Injury
Demyelination contributes to the dysfunction after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). We explored whether the combination of neurotrophic factors and transplantation of adult rat spinal cord oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) could enhance remyelination and functional recovery after SCI. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) was the most effective neurotrophic factor to promote oligodendrocyte (OL) differentiation and survival of OPCs in vitro. OPCs were infected with retroviruses expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) or CNTF and transplanted into the contused adult thoracic spinal cord 9 d after injury. Seven weeks after transplantation, the grafted OPCs survived and integrated into the injured spinal cord. The survival of grafted CNTF-OPCs increased fourfold compared with EGFP-OPCs. The grafted OPCs differentiated into adenomatus polyposis coli (APC+) OLs, and CNTF significantly increased the percentage of APC+ OLs from grafted OPCs. Immunofluorescent and immunoelectron microscopic analyses showed that the grafted OPCs formed central myelin sheaths around the axons in the injured spinal cord. The number of OL-remyelinated axons in ventrolateral funiculus (VLF) or lateral funiculus (LF) at the injured epicenter was significantly increased in animals that received CNTF-OPC grafts compared with all other groups. Importantly, 75% of rats receiving CNTF-OPC grafts recovered transcranial magnetic motor-evoked potential and magnetic interenlargement reflex responses, indicating that conduction through the demyelinated axons in VLF or LF, respectively, was partially restored. More importantly, recovery of hindlimb locomotor function was significantly enhanced in animals receiving grafts of CNTF-OPCs. Thus, combined treatment with OPC grafts expressing CNTF can enhance remyelination and facilitate functional recovery after traumatic SCI
Context-Dependent Behavior of the Enterocin Iterative Polyketide Synthase A New Model for Ketoreduction
AbstractHeterologous expression and mutagenesis of the enterocin type II polyketide synthase (PKS) system suggest for the first time that the association of an extended set of proteins and substrates is needed for the effective production of the enterocin-wailupemycin polyketides. In the absence of its endogenous ketoreductase (KR) EncD in either the enterocin producer “Streptomyces maritimus” or the engineered host S. lividans K4-114, the enterocin minimal PKS is unable to produce benzoate-primed polyketides, even when complemented with the homologous actinorhodin KR ActIII or with EncD active site mutants. These data suggest that the enterocin PKS requires EncD to serve a catalytic and not just a structural role in the functional PKS enzyme complex. This strongly implies that EncD reduces the polyketide chain during elongation rather than after its complete assembly, as suggested for most type II PKSs
The lifetime of B_c-meson and some relevant problems
The lifetime of the B_c-meson is estimated with consistent considerations on
all of the heavy mesons () and the double
heavy meson B_c. In the estimate, the framework, where the non-spectator
effects for nonleptonic decays are taken into account properly, is adopted, and
the parameters needed to be fixed are treated carefully and determined by
fitting the available data. The bound-state effects in it are also considered.
We find that in decays of the meson B_c, the QCD correction terms of the
penguin diagrams and the main component terms c_1O_1, c_2O_2 of the effective
interaction Lagrangian have direct interference that causes an enhancement
about 3 ~ 4% in the total width of the B_c meson.Comment: 27 pages, 0 figur
Barriers to accessing TB diagnosis for rural-to-urban migrants with chronic cough in Chongqing, China: A mixed methods study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>China is facing a significant tuberculosis epidemic among rural-to-urban migrants, which poses a threat to TB control. This study aimed to understand the health seeking behaviour of and health systems responses to migrants and permanent urban residents suffering from chronic cough, in order to identify the factors influencing delays for both groups in receiving a TB diagnosis in urban China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Combining a prospective cohort study of adult suspect TB patients and a qualitative study, the Piot model was used to analyze the health seeking behaviour of TB suspects among migrants and permanent urban residents, the factors influencing their decision and the responses by general health providers. Methods included a patient survey, focus group discussions with migrants in the general population, qualitative interviews with migrant and permanent resident TB suspects and TB patients as well as key stakeholders related to TB control and the management of migrants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixty eight percent of migrants delayed for more than two weeks before seeking care for symptoms suggestive of TB, compared to 54% of residents (p < 0.01). When they first decided to seek professional care, migrants were 1.5 times more likely than residents to use less expensive, community-level health services. Only 5% were ultimately referred to a TB dispensary. Major reasons for both patient and provider delay included lack of knowledge and mistrust of the TB control programme, lack of knowledge about TB (patients), and profit-seeking behaviour (providers). In the follow up survey, 61% of the migrants and 41% of the residents who still had symptoms gave up continuing to seek professional care, with a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Rural-to-urban migrants are more likely than permanent residents to delay in seeking care for symptoms suggestive of TB in urban Chongqing. 'Patient-' and 'provider-' related factors interact to pose barriers to TB diagnosis for migrants, including: low awareness, and poor knowledge among both the general public and TB suspects about TB as a disease and about the TB control programme; low financial capacity to pay for care and diagnostic tests; and inadequate use of diagnostic tests and referral to TB dispensaries by general health providers.</p
Multiple functional neurosteroid binding sites on GABAA receptors
Neurosteroids are endogenous modulators of neuronal excitability and nervous system development and are being developed as anesthetic agents and treatments for psychiatric diseases. While gamma amino-butyric acid Type A (GABAA) receptors are the primary molecular targets of neurosteroid action, the structural details of neurosteroid binding to these proteins remain ill defined. We synthesized neurosteroid analogue photolabeling reagents in which the photolabeling groups were placed at three positions around the neurosteroid ring structure, enabling identification of binding sites and mapping of neurosteroid orientation within these sites. Using middle-down mass spectrometry (MS), we identified three clusters of photolabeled residues representing three distinct neurosteroid binding sites in the human α1β3 GABAA receptor. Novel intrasubunit binding sites were identified within the transmembrane helical bundles of both the α1 (labeled residues α1-N408, Y415) and β3 (labeled residue β3-Y442) subunits, adjacent to the extracellular domains (ECDs). An intersubunit site (labeled residues β3-L294 and G308) in the interface between the β3(+) and α1(-) subunits of the GABAA receptor pentamer was also identified. Computational docking studies of neurosteroid to the three sites predicted critical residues contributing to neurosteroid interaction with the GABAA receptors. Electrophysiological studies of receptors with mutations based on these predictions (α1-V227W, N408A/Y411F, and Q242L) indicate that both the α1 intrasubunit and β3-α1 intersubunit sites are critical for neurosteroid action
Restudy on Dark Matter Time-Evolution in the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity
Following previous study, in the Littlest Higgs model (LHM), the heavy photon
is supposed to be a possible dark matter candidate and its relic abundance of
the heavy photon is estimated in terms of the Boltzman-Lee-Weinberg
time-evolution equation. The effects of the T-parity violation is also
considered. Our calculations show that when Higgs mass taken to be 300
GeV and don't consider T-parity violation, only two narrow ranges
GeV and GeV are tolerable with the
current astrophysical observation and if GeV, there must at
least exist another species of heavy particle contributing to the cold dark
matter. As long as the T-parity can be violated, the heavy photon can decay
into regular standard model particles and would affect the dark matter
abundance in the universe, we discuss the constraint on the T-parity violation
parameter based on the present data. Direct detection prospects are also
discussed in some detail.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures include
Asymmetry of Strange Sea in Nucleons
Based on the finite-temperature field theory, we evaluate the medium effects
in nucleon which can induce an asymmetry between quarks and antiquarks of the
strange sea. The short-distance effects determined by the weak interaction can
give rise to where is the medium-induced mass of strange quark by a few KeV at
most, but the long-distance effects by strong interaction are sizable. Our
numerical results show that there exists an obvious mass difference between
strange and anti-strange quarks, as large as 10-100 MeV.Comment: 15 latex pages, 3 figures, to appear in PR
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