1,474 research outputs found
Sharing a Context with Other Rewarding Events Increases the Probability that Neutral Events will be Recollected.
Although reward is known to enhance memory for reward-predicting events, the extent to which such memory effects spread to associated (neutral) events is unclear. Using a between-subject design, we examined how sharing a background context with rewarding events influenced memory for motivationally neutral events (tested after a 5 days delay). We found that sharing a visually rich context with rewarding objects during encoding increased the probability that neutral objects would be successfully recollected during memory test, as opposed to merely being recognized without any recall of associative detail. In contrast, such an effect was not seen when the context was not explicitly demarcated and objects were presented against a blank black background. These qualitative changes in memory were observed in the absence of any effects on overall recognition (as measured by d'). Additionally, a follow-up study failed to find any evidence to suggest that the mere presence of a context picture in the background during encoding (i.e., without the reward manipulation) produced any such qualitative changes in memory. These results suggest that reward enhances recollection for rewarding objects as well as other non-rewarding events that are representationally linked to the same context
Reply: Granisetron vs ondansetron: is it a question of duration of 5-HT3 receptor blockade?
British Journal of Cancer (2002) 86, 1664β1664. DOI: 10.1038/sj/bjc/6600314 www.bjcancer.co
Multiple D4-D2-D0 on the Conifold and Wall-crossing with the Flop
We study the wall-crossing phenomena of D4-D2-D0 bound states with two units
of D4-brane charge on the resolved conifold. We identify the walls of marginal
stability and evaluate the discrete changes of the BPS indices by using the
Kontsevich-Soibelman wall-crossing formula. In particular, we find that the
field theories on D4-branes in two large radius limits are properly connected
by the wall-crossings involving the flop transition of the conifold. We also
find that in one of the large radius limits there are stable bound states of
two D4-D2-D0 fragments.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures; v2: typos corrected, minor changes, a reference
adde
Wall-crossing of D4-D2-D0 and flop of the conifold
We discuss the wall-crossing of the BPS bound states of a non-compact
holomorphic D4-brane with D2 and D0-branes on the conifold. We use the
Kontsevich-Soibelman wall-crossing formula and analyze the BPS degeneracy in
various chambers. In particular we obtain a relation between BPS degeneracies
in two limiting attractor chambers related by a flop transition. Our result is
consistent with known results and predicts BPS degeneracies in all chambers.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; v2: typos corrected; v3: minor changes, a
reference added, version to be published in JHE
Stochastic Models of Lymphocyte Proliferation and Death
Quantitative understanding of the kinetics of lymphocyte proliferation and death upon activation with an antigen is crucial for elucidating factors determining the magnitude, duration and efficiency of the immune response. Recent advances in quantitative experimental techniques, in particular intracellular labeling and multi-channel flow cytometry, allow one to measure the population structure of proliferating and dying lymphocytes for several generations with high precision. These new experimental techniques require novel quantitative methods of analysis. We review several recent mathematical approaches used to describe and analyze cell proliferation data. Using a rigorous mathematical framework, we show that two commonly used models that are based on the theories of age-structured cell populations and of branching processes, are mathematically identical. We provide several simple analytical solutions for a model in which the distribution of inter-division times follows a gamma distribution and show that this model can fit both simulated and experimental data. We also show that the estimates of some critical kinetic parameters, such as the average inter-division time, obtained by fitting models to data may depend on the assumed distribution of inter-division times, highlighting the challenges in quantitative understanding of cell kinetics
Accelerated in vivo proliferation of memory phenotype CD4+ T-cells in human HIV-1 infection irrespective of viral chemokine co-receptor tropism.
CD4(+) T-cell loss is the hallmark of HIV-1 infection. CD4 counts fall more rapidly in advanced disease when CCR5-tropic viral strains tend to be replaced by X4-tropic viruses. We hypothesized: (i) that the early dominance of CCR5-tropic viruses results from faster turnover rates of CCR5(+) cells, and (ii) that X4-tropic strains exert greater pathogenicity by preferentially increasing turnover rates within the CXCR4(+) compartment. To test these hypotheses we measured in vivo turnover rates of CD4(+) T-cell subpopulations sorted by chemokine receptor expression, using in vivo deuterium-glucose labeling. Deuterium enrichment was modeled to derive in vivo proliferation (p) and disappearance (d*) rates which were related to viral tropism data. 13 healthy controls and 13 treatment-naive HIV-1-infected subjects (CD4 143-569 cells/ul) participated. CCR5-expression defined a CD4(+) subpopulation of predominantly CD45R0(+) memory cells with accelerated in vivo proliferation (p = 2.50 vs 1.60%/d, CCR5(+) vs CCR5(-); healthy controls; P<0.01). Conversely, CXCR4 expression defined CD4(+) T-cells (predominantly CD45RA(+) naive cells) with low turnover rates. The dominant effect of HIV infection was accelerated turnover of CCR5(+)CD45R0(+)CD4(+) memory T-cells (p = 5.16 vs 2.50%/d, HIV vs controls; P<0.05), naΓ―ve cells being relatively unaffected. Similar patterns were observed whether the dominant circulating HIV-1 strain was R5-tropic (n = 9) or X4-tropic (n = 4). Although numbers were small, X4-tropic viruses did not appear to specifically drive turnover of CXCR4-expressing cells (p = 0.54 vs 0.72 vs 0.44%/d in control, R5-tropic, and X4-tropic groups respectively). Our data are most consistent with models in which CD4(+) T-cell loss is primarily driven by non-specific immune activation
Evidence for Duality of Conifold from Fundamental String
We study the spectrum of BPS D5-D3-F1 states in type IIB theory, which are
proposed to be dual to D4-D2-D0 states on the resolved conifold in type IIA
theory. We evaluate the BPS partition functions for all values of the moduli
parameter in the type IIB side, and find them completely agree with the results
in the type IIA side which was obtained by using Kontsevich-Soibelman's
wall-crossing formula. Our result is a quite strong evidence for string
dualities on the conifold.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, v2: typos corrected, v3: explanations about
wall-crossing improved and figures adde
Learning in anticipation of reward and punishment: perspectives across the human lifespan
Learning to act to receive reward and to withhold to avoid punishment has been found to be easier than learning the opposite contingencies in young adults. To what extent this type of behavioral adaptation might develop during childhood and adolescence and differ during aging remains unclear. We therefore tested 247 healthy individuals across the human life span (7-80Β years) with an orthogonalized valenced go/no-go learning task. Computational modeling revealed that peak performance in young adults was attributable to greater sensitivity to both reward and punishment. However, in children and adolescents, we observed an increased bias toward action but not reward sensitivity. By contrast, reduced learning in midlife and older adults was accompanied by decreased reward sensitivity and especially punishment sensitivity along with an age-related increase in the Pavlovian bias. These findings reveal distinct motivation-dependent learning capabilities across the human life span, which cannot be probed using conventional go/reward no-go/punishment style paradigms that have important implications in lifelong education
Reconciling Estimates of Cell Proliferation from Stable Isotope Labeling Experiments.
Stable isotope labeling is the state of the art technique for in vivo quantification of lymphocyte kinetics in humans. It has been central to a number of seminal studies, particularly in the context of HIV-1 and leukemia. However, there is a significant discrepancy between lymphocyte proliferation rates estimated in different studies. Notably, deuterated (2)H2-glucose (D2-glucose) labeling studies consistently yield higher estimates of proliferation than deuterated water (D2O) labeling studies. This hampers our understanding of immune function and undermines our confidence in this important technique. Whether these differences are caused by fundamental biochemical differences between the two compounds and/or by methodological differences in the studies is unknown. D2-glucose and D2O labeling experiments have never been performed by the same group under the same experimental conditions; consequently a direct comparison of these two techniques has not been possible. We sought to address this problem. We performed both in vitro and murine in vivo labeling experiments using identical protocols with both D2-glucose and D2O. This showed that intrinsic differences between the two compounds do not cause differences in the proliferation rate estimates, but that estimates made using D2-glucose in vivo were susceptible to difficulties in normalization due to highly variable blood glucose enrichment. Analysis of three published human studies made using D2-glucose and D2O confirmed this problem, particularly in the case of short term D2-glucose labeling. Correcting for these inaccuracies in normalization decreased proliferation rate estimates made using D2-glucose and slightly increased estimates made using D2O; thus bringing the estimates from the two methods significantly closer and highlighting the importance of reliable normalization when using this technique
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