Dynamic excitatory and inhibitory gain modulation can produce flexible, robust and optimal decision-making

<div><p>Behavioural and neurophysiological studies in primates have increasingly shown the involvement of urgency signals during the temporal integration of sensory evidence in perceptual decision-making. Neuronal correlates of such signals have been found in the parietal cortex, and in separate studies, demonstrated attention-induced gain modulation of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Although previous computational models of decision-making have incorporated gain modulation, their abstract forms do not permit an understanding of the contribution of inhibitory gain modulation. Thus, the effects of co-modulating both excitatory and inhibitory neuronal gains on decision-making dynamics and behavioural performance remain unclear. In this work, we incorporate time-dependent co-modulation of the gains of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons into our previous biologically based decision circuit model. We base our computational study in the context of two classic motion-discrimination tasks performed in animals. Our model shows that by simultaneously increasing the gains of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons, a variety of the observed dynamic neuronal firing activities can be replicated. In particular, the model can exhibit winner-take-all decision-making behaviour with higher firing rates and within a significantly more robust model parameter range. It also exhibits short-tailed reaction time distributions even when operating near a dynamical bifurcation point. The model further shows that neuronal gain modulation can compensate for weaker recurrent excitation in a decision neural circuit, and support decision formation and storage. Higher neuronal gain is also suggested in the more cognitively demanding reaction time than in the fixed delay version of the task. Using the exact temporal delays from the animal experiments, fast recruitment of gain co-modulation is shown to maximize reward rate, with a timescale that is surprisingly near the experimentally fitted value. Our work provides insights into the simultaneous and rapid modulation of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal gains, which enables flexible, robust, and optimal decision-making.</p></div

International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis

Background: The 5 years since the publication of the first International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis (ICAR‐RS) has witnessed foundational progress in our understanding and treatment of rhinologic disease. These advances are reflected within the more than 40 new topics covered within the ICAR‐RS‐2021 as well as updates to the original 140 topics. This executive summary consolidates the evidence‐based findings of the document. Methods: ICAR‐RS presents over 180 topics in the forms of evidence‐based reviews with recommendations (EBRRs), evidence‐based reviews, and literature reviews. The highest grade structured recommendations of the EBRR sections are summarized in this executive summary. Results: ICAR‐RS‐2021 covers 22 topics regarding the medical management of RS, which are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Additionally, 4 topics regarding the surgical management of RS are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Finally, a comprehensive evidence‐based management algorithm is provided. Conclusion: This ICAR‐RS‐2021 executive summary provides a compilation of the evidence‐based recommendations for medical and surgical treatment of the most common forms of RS

Performances evaluation of the optical techniques developed and used to map the velocities vectors of radioactive dust

Radioactive dust mobilization is a risk that can occur in many nuclear plants and, in order to reduce the risk related to this event, it is necessary map the velocity vectors of dust during its mobilization. The authors have designed and used a chain of measurements for air pressure and velocity, temperature, and dust velocity used on the experimental facility STARDUST-Upgrade that can replicate the thermos-fluidodynamic conditions of the loss of vacuum accidents with a pressurization rate in a range of 10–1000 Pa/s and a temperature in a range of 20–140 ℃. In this work, the authors present the optical experimental setups and software used to track dust velocities. These techniques are based on the particle tracking velocimetry and flow motion algorithms. Two different experimental setups are used to take into account the different optical properties of dust, each image obtained during the experiments has been analysed with customized software. Three different of algorithms are analysed and criticaly compared in this work: Lucas-Kanade, feature matching and Horn-Schunck. The authors will evaluate the performances of these optical techniques developed and used to map the velocities vectors of radioactive dust

Toward model-based big data-as-a-service: The TOREADOR approach

The full potential of Big Data Analytics (BDA) can be unleashed only by overcoming hurdles like the high architectural complexity and lack of transparency of Big Data toolkits, as well as the high cost and lack of legal clearance of data collection, access and processing procedures. We first discuss the notion of Big Data Analytics-as-a-Service (BDAaaS) to help potential users of BDA in overcoming such hurdles. We then present TOREADOR, a first approach to BDAaaS

Lottery Rather than Waiting-line Auction

This paper investigates the allocative efficiency of two non-price allocation mechanisms - the lottery (random allocation) and the waiting-line auction (queue system) - for the cases where consumers possess identical time costs (the homogeneous case), and where time costs are correlated with time valuations (the heterogeneous case). We show that the relative efficiency of the two mechanisms depends critically on a scarcity factor (measured by the ratio of the number of objects available for allocation over the number of participants) and on the shape of the distribution of valuations. We show that the lottery dominates the waiting-line auction for a wide range of situations, and that while consumer heterogeneity may improve the relative allocative efficiency of the waiting-line auction, the ranking on relative efficiency is not reversed

Explosion of Undried and Dried Rice Flour with Ignition Time of 20 ms

In this work, the explosion characteristics of rice flour towards difference concentration at ignition time of 20 ms were analyzed. A series of experiments were performed in a 20 L spherical chamber to obtain a maximum overpressure (Pmax), rate of the pressure rise (dP/dT), and deflagration index (Kst) of undried and dried commercial rice flour. The dust sample and air were ignited by two chemical ignitors. Kistler piezoelectric pressure sensor was used to determine the propagation of pressure wave during the explosion. The moisture content of the samples was measured via proximate analysis. The Pmax was obtained at the highest pressure over the range of concentrations. Pmax for undried rice flour was 10.9 bar at concentration of 1000 kg/m3. Pmax for dried rice flour was 14.4 bar at concentration of 1000 kg/m3. The highest dP/dT rise was 103 bar/s for undried flour achieved at concentration of 750 kg/m3 and 202 bar/s for dried flour achieved at concentration of 1000 kg/m3. Kst for undried and dried rice flour are 27.96 bar.m/s and 54.83 bar.m/s respectively. It was found that the explosion severity increased as the dust flour concentration increases