Amodal processing in human prefrontal cortex

Information enters the cortex via modality-specific sensory regions, whereas actions are produced by modality-specific motor regions. Intervening central stages of information processing map sensation to behavior. Humans perform this central processing in a flexible, abstract manner such that sensory information in any modality can lead to response via any motor system. Cognitive theories account for such flexible behavior by positing amodal central information processing (e. g., "central executive," Baddeley and Hitch, 1974; "supervisory attentional system," Norman and Shallice, 1986; "response selection bottleneck," Pashler, 1994). However, the extent to which brain regions embodying central mechanisms of information processing are amodal remains unclear. Here we apply multivariate pattern analysis to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to compare response selection, a cognitive process widely believed to recruit an amodal central resource across sensory and motor modalities. We show that most frontal and parietal cortical areas known to activate across a wide variety of tasks code modality, casting doubt on the notion that these regions embody a central processor devoid of modality representation. Importantly, regions of anterior insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex consistently failed to code modality across four experiments. However, these areas code at least one other task dimension, process (instantiated as response selection vs response execution), ensuring that failure to find coding of modality is not driven by insensitivity of multivariate pattern analysis in these regions. We conclude that abstract encoding of information modality is primarily a property of subregions of the prefrontal cortex

Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances

This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabling regular contact with family, friends, smugglers, and those who help them. However, refugees are simultaneously exposed to new forms of exploitation and surveillance with smartphones as migrations are financialised by smugglers and criminalized by European policies, and the digital passage is dependent on a contingent range of sociotechnical and material assemblages. Through an infrastructural lens, we capture the dialectical dynamics of opportunity and vulnerability, and the forms of resilience and solidarity, that arise as forced migration and digital connectivity coincide

Singularites in the Bousseneq equation and in the generalized KdV equation

In this paper, two kinds of the exact singular solutions are obtained by the improved homogeneous balance (HB) method and a nonlinear transformation. The two exact solutions show that special singular wave patterns exists in the classical model of some nonlinear wave problems

Deformation quantization of linear dissipative systems

A simple pseudo-Hamiltonian formulation is proposed for the linear inhomogeneous systems of ODEs. In contrast to the usual Hamiltonian mechanics, our approach is based on the use of non-stationary Poisson brackets, i.e. corresponding Poisson tensor is allowed to explicitly depend on time. Starting from this pseudo-Hamiltonian formulation we develop a consistent deformation quantization procedure involving a non-stationary star-product $*_t$ and an ``extended'' operator of time derivative $D_t=\partial_t+...$, differentiating the $\ast_t$-product. As in the usual case, the $\ast_t$-algebra of physical observables is shown to admit an essentially unique (time dependent) trace functional $\mathrm{Tr}_t$. Using these ingredients we construct a complete and fully consistent quantum-mechanical description for any linear dynamical system with or without dissipation. The general quantization method is exemplified by the models of damped oscillator and radiating point charge.Comment: 14 pages, typos correcte

On a Camassa-Holm type equation with two dependent variables

We consider a generalization of the Camassa Holm (CH) equation with two dependent variables, called CH2, introduced by Liu and Zhang. We briefly provide an alternative derivation of it based on the theory of Hamiltonian structures on (the dual of) a Lie Algebra. The Lie Algebra here involved is the same algebra underlying the NLS hierarchy. We study the structural properties of the CH2 hierarchy within the bihamiltonian theory of integrable PDEs, and provide its Lax representation. Then we explicitly discuss how to construct classes of solutions, both of peakon and of algebro-geometrical type. We finally sketch the construction of a class of singular solutions, defined by setting to zero one of the two dependent variables.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. A few typos correcte

Combination of Six Individual Derivatives of the Pom-1 Antibiofilm Peptide Doubles Their Efficacy against Invasive and Multi-Resistant Clinical Isolates of the Pathogenic Yeast Candida albicans

In previous studies, derivatives of the peptide Pom-1, which was originally extracted from the freshwater mollusk Pomacea poeyana, showed an exceptional ability to specifically inhibit biofilm formation of the laboratory strain ATCC 90028 as a model strain of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. In follow-up, here, we demonstrate that the derivatives Pom-1A to Pom-1F are also active against biofilms of invasive clinical C. albicans isolates, including strains resistant against fluconazole and/or amphotericin B. However, efficacy varied strongly between the isolates, as indicated by large deviations in the experiments. This lack of robustness could be efficiently bypassed by using mixtures of all peptides. These mixed peptide preparations were active against biofilm formation of all the isolates with uniform efficacies, and the total peptide concentration could be halved compared to the original MIC of the individual peptides (2.5 µg/mL). Moreover, mixing the individual peptides restored the antifungal effect of fluconazole against fluconazole-resistant isolates even at 50% of the standard therapeutic concentration. Without having elucidated the reason for these synergistic effects of the peptides yet, both the gain of efficacy and the considerable increase in efficiency by combining the peptides indicate that Pom-1 and its derivatives in suitable formulations may play an important role as new antibiofilm antimycotics in the fight against invasive clinical infections with (multi-) resistant C. albicans

Controls on short-term variations in Greenland glacier dynamics

Short-term ice-dynamical processes at Greenland’s Jakobshavn and Kangerdlugssuaq glaciers were studied using a 3 day time series of synthetic aperture radar data acquired during the 2011 European Remote-sensing Satellite-2 (ERS-2) 3 day repeat campaign together with modelled meteorological parameters. The time series spans the period March–July 2011 and captures the first 30% of the summer melting season. In both study areas, we observe velocity fluctuations at the lower 10 km of the glacier. At Jakobshavn Isbræ, where our dataset covers the first part of the seasonal calving-front retreat, we identify ten calving episodes, with a mean calving-front area loss of 1.29 0.4km2. Significant glacier speed-up was observed in the near-terminus area following all calving episodes. We identify changes in calving-front geometry as the dominant control on velocity fluctuations on both glaciers, apart from

Exact travelling wave solutions of a beam equation

In this paper we make a full analysis of the symmetry reductions of a beam equation by using the classical Lie method of infinitesimals and the nonclassical method. We consider travelling wave reductions depending on the form of an arbitrary function. We have found several new classes of solutions that have not been considered before: solutions expressed in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions, Wadati solitons and compactons. Several classes of coherent structures are displayed by some of the solutions: kinks, solitons, two humps compactons.17 página

The whereabouts of power: politics, government and space

In a world where it has become almost commonplace to talk about power as centralised or distributed, concentrated or diffuse, deterritorialized or dispersed even, it is all too easy to miss the diverse geographies of power that put us in place. The binary talk that forces us to choose between a centred or a decentred view of power, or to shuffle between them in an effort to blur clearly demarcated scales, leaves little room to move beyond defined distances and settled proximities in relation to the exercise of power. In this paper, a more spatially-curious dialogue of power is opened up which foregrounds associational as well as instrumental forms of power which can make a difference to how we act politically