35,651 research outputs found
Does binding of synesthetic color to the evoking grapheme require attention?
The official published version can be accessed from the link below.The neural mechanisms involved in binding features such as shape and color are a matter of some debate. Does accurate binding rely on spatial attention functions of the parietal lobe or can it occur without attentional input? One extraordinary phenomenon that may shed light on this question is that of chromatic-graphemic synesthesia, a rare condition in which letter shapes evoke color perceptions. A popular suggestion is that synesthesia results from cross-activation between different functional regions (e.g., between shape and color areas of the ventral pathway). Under such conditions binding may not require parietal involvement and could occur preattentively. We tested this hypothesis in two synesthetes who perceived grayscale letters and digits in color. We found no evidence for preattentive binding using a visual search paradigm in which the target was a synesthetic inducer. In another experiment involving color judgments, we show that the congruency of target color and the synesthetic color of irrelevant digits modulates performance more when the digits are included within the attended region of space. We propose that the mechanisms giving rise to this type of synesthesia appear to follow at least some principles of normal binding, and even synesthetic binding seems to require attention.This work has been supported by a Veterans Administration Senior Research Career Scientist Award and NINDS grant #MH62331 to LCR and the Elizabeth Roboz Einstein fellowship in Neuroscience and Human Development to NS
Span programs and quantum algorithms for st-connectivity and claw detection
We introduce a span program that decides st-connectivity, and generalize the
span program to develop quantum algorithms for several graph problems. First,
we give an algorithm for st-connectivity that uses O(n d^{1/2}) quantum queries
to the n x n adjacency matrix to decide if vertices s and t are connected,
under the promise that they either are connected by a path of length at most d,
or are disconnected. We also show that if T is a path, a star with two
subdivided legs, or a subdivision of a claw, its presence as a subgraph in the
input graph G can be detected with O(n) quantum queries to the adjacency
matrix. Under the promise that G either contains T as a subgraph or does not
contain T as a minor, we give O(n)-query quantum algorithms for detecting T
either a triangle or a subdivision of a star. All these algorithms can be
implemented time efficiently and, except for the triangle-detection algorithm,
in logarithmic space. One of the main techniques is to modify the
st-connectivity span program to drop along the way "breadcrumbs," which must be
retrieved before the path from s is allowed to enter t.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Cryogenically Treated Music Wire
It has been reported that treating music wire (high carbon steel wire) by
cooling to cryogenic temperatures can enhance its mechanical properties with
particular reference to those properties important for musical performance. We
use such wire for suspending many of the optics in Advanced LIGO, the upgrade
to LIGO - the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Two
properties that particularly interest us are mechanical loss and breaking
strength. A decrease in mechanical loss would directly reduce the thermal noise
associated with the suspension, thus enhancing the noise performance of mirror
suspensions within the detector. An increase in strength could allow thinner
wire to be safely used, which would enhance the dilution factor of the
suspension, again leading to lower suspension thermal noise. In this article we
describe the results of an investigation into some of the mechanical properties
of music wire, comparing untreated wire with the same wire which has been
cryogenically treated. For the samples we studied we conclude that there is no
significant difference in the properties of interest for application in
gravitational wave detectors
Novel Sub-Harmonic Injection-Locked Balanced Oscillator
A novel sub-harmonic injection-locked balanced oscillator is proposed. The circuit provides two outputs with a 180° ° phase difference by employing a transmission line section for impedance transformation to meet the oscillation conditions. A coupling network is connected at the mid-point of the transmission line to inject the sub-harmonic frequency. This eliminates the need for a circulator or balun. The circuit is small and consumes low DC power. Under the locking state, the circuit provides double the injection frequency and also the phase noise of the two outputs is substantially improved
On the pathwidth of almost semicomplete digraphs
We call a digraph {\em -semicomplete} if each vertex of the digraph has at
most non-neighbors, where a non-neighbor of a vertex is a vertex such that there is no edge between and in either direction.
This notion generalizes that of semicomplete digraphs which are
-semicomplete and tournaments which are semicomplete and have no
anti-parallel pairs of edges. Our results in this paper are as follows. (1) We
give an algorithm which, given an -semicomplete digraph on vertices
and a positive integer , in time either
constructs a path-decomposition of of width at most or concludes
correctly that the pathwidth of is larger than . (2) We show that there
is a function such that every -semicomplete digraph of pathwidth
at least has a semicomplete subgraph of pathwidth at least .
One consequence of these results is that the problem of deciding if a fixed
digraph is topologically contained in a given -semicomplete digraph
admits a polynomial-time algorithm for fixed .Comment: 33pages, a shorter version to appear in ESA 201
Are there any good digraph width measures?
Several different measures for digraph width have appeared in the last few
years. However, none of them shares all the "nice" properties of treewidth:
First, being \emph{algorithmically useful} i.e. admitting polynomial-time
algorithms for all \MS1-definable problems on digraphs of bounded width. And,
second, having nice \emph{structural properties} i.e. being monotone under
taking subdigraphs and some form of arc contractions. As for the former,
(undirected) \MS1 seems to be the least common denominator of all reasonably
expressive logical languages on digraphs that can speak about the edge/arc
relation on the vertex set.The latter property is a necessary condition for a
width measure to be characterizable by some version of the cops-and-robber game
characterizing the ordinary treewidth. Our main result is that \emph{any
reasonable} algorithmically useful and structurally nice digraph measure cannot
be substantially different from the treewidth of the underlying undirected
graph. Moreover, we introduce \emph{directed topological minors} and argue that
they are the weakest useful notion of minors for digraphs
Innovation processes and industrial districts
In this survey, we examine the operations of innovation processes within industrial districts by exploring the ways in which differentiation, specialization, and integration
affect the generation, diffusion, and use of new knowledge in such districts. We begin with an analysis of the importance of the division of labour and then investigate the effects of social embeddedness on innovation. We also consider the effect of forms of organization within industrial districts at various stages of product and process life, and we examine the negative aspects of embeddedness for innovation. We conclude with a discussion of the possible consequences of new information and
communications technologies on innovation in industrial districts
Phonon contributions to the entropies of hP24 and fcc Co3V
Inelastic neutron-scattering spectra and neutron-diffraction patterns were measured on the alloy Co3V at temperatures from 1073-1513 K, where the hP24 (ordered hexagonal) and fee structures are the equilibrium states of the alloy. Phonon density of states (DOS) curves were calculated from the inelastic-scattering spectra, allowing estimates of the vibrational entropy in the harmonic and quasiharmonic approximations. The vibrational entropy of the hP24-fcc phase transition at 1323 K was found to be 0.07k(B)/atom. The anharmonic contributions to the entropy over a temperature range of 100 K were comparable to the vibrational entropy of this phase transition. The anharmonic softening of the phonon DOS was only slightly larger for the hP24 than the fee phase, however, so the anharmonic effects contribute only slightly to the difference in entropy of the two phases. The simple Gruneisen approximation was inadequate for predicting the thermal softening of the phonon DOS
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