450 research outputs found
Equilibrium Properties of Temporally Asymmetric Hebbian Plasticity
A theory of temporally asymmetric Hebb (TAH) rules which depress or
potentiate synapses depending upon whether the postsynaptic cell fires before
or after the presynaptic one is presented. Using the Fokker-Planck formalism,
we show that the equilibrium synaptic distribution induced by such rules is
highly sensitive to the manner in which bounds on the allowed range of synaptic
values are imposed. In a biologically plausible multiplicative model, we find
that the synapses in asynchronous networks reach a distribution that is
invariant to the firing rates of either the pre- or post-synaptic cells. When
these cells are temporally correlated, the synaptic strength varies smoothly
with the degree and phase of synchrony between the cells.Comment: 3 figures, minor corrections of equations and tex
Nature of light correlations in ghost imaging
We investigate the nature of correlations in Gaussian light sources used for
ghost imaging. We adopt methods from quantum information theory to distinguish
genuinely quantum from classical correlations. Combining a microscopic analysis
of speckle-speckle correlations with an effective coarse-grained description of
the beams, we show that quantum correlations exist even in `classical'-like
thermal light sources, and appear relevant for the implementation of ghost
imaging in the regime of low illumination. We further demonstrate that the
total correlations in the thermal source beams effectively determine the
quality of the imaging, as quantified by the signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Scientific Reports (NPG
Neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease responsive to interleukin-1 beta inhibition
BACKGROUND:Neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease is characterized by fever, urticarial rash, aseptic meningitis, deforming arthropathy, hearing loss, and mental retardation. Many patients have mutations in the cold-induced autoinflammatory syndrome 1 (CIAS1) gene, encoding cryopyrin, a protein that regulates inflammation.METHODS:We selected 18 patients with neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease (12 with identifiable CIAS1 mutations) to receive anakinra, an interleukin-1-receptor antagonist (1 to 2 mg per kilogram of body weight per day subcutaneously). In 11 patients, anakinra was withdrawn at three months until a flare occurred. The primary end points included changes in scores in a daily diary of symptoms, serum levels of amyloid A and C-reactive protein, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate from baseline to month 3 and from month 3 until a disease flare.RESULTS:All 18 patients had a rapid response to anakinra, with disappearance of rash. Diary scores improved (P<0.001) and serum amyloid A (from a median of 174 mg to 8 mg per liter), C-reactive protein (from a median of 5.29 mg to 0.34 mg per deciliter), and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate decreased at month 3 (all P<0.001), and remained low at month 6. Magnetic resonance imaging showed improvement in cochlear and leptomeningeal lesions as compared with baseline. Withdrawal of anakinra uniformly resulted in relapse within days; retreatment led to rapid improvement. There were no drug-related serious adverse events.CONCLUSIONS:Daily injections of anakinra markedly improved clinical and laboratory manifestations in patients with neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease, with or without CIAS1 mutations
How feedback inhibition shapes spike-timing-dependent plasticity and its implications for recent Schizophrenia models
It has been shown that plasticity is not a fixed property but, in fact, changes depending on the location of the synapse on the neuron and/or changes of biophysical parameters. Here we investigate how plasticity is shaped by feedback inhibition in a cortical microcircuit. We use a differential Hebbian learning rule to model spike-timing dependent plasticity and show analytically that the feedback inhibition shortens the time window for LTD during spike-timing dependent plasticity but not for LTP. We then use a realistic GENESIS model to test two hypothesis about interneuron hypofunction and conclude that a reduction in GAD67 is the most likely candidate as the cause for hypofrontality as observed in Schizophrenia
Stability of Negative Image Equilibria in Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity
We investigate the stability of negative image equilibria in mean synaptic
weight dynamics governed by spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP). The
neural architecture of the model is based on the electrosensory lateral line
lobe (ELL) of mormyrid electric fish, which forms a negative image of the
reafferent signal from the fish's own electric discharge to optimize detection
of external electric fields. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for
stability, for arbitrary postsynaptic potential functions and arbitrary
learning rules. We then apply the general result to several examples of
biological interest.Comment: 13 pages, revtex4; uses packages: graphicx, subfigure; 9 figures, 16
subfigure
Diverse transcription influences can be insulated by the Drosophila SF1 chromatin boundary
Chromatin boundaries regulate gene expression by modulating enhancer–promoter interactions and insulating transcriptional influences from organized chromatin. However, mechanistic distinctions between these two aspects of boundary function are not well understood. Here we show that SF1, a chromatin boundary located in the Drosophila Antennapedia complex (ANT-C), can insulate the transgenic miniwhite reporter from both enhancing and silencing effects of surrounding genome, a phenomenon known as chromosomal position effect or CPE. We found that the CPE-blocking activity associates with different SF1 sub-regions from a previously characterized insulator that blocks enhancers in transgenic embryos, and is independent of GAF-binding sites essential for the embryonic insulator activity. We further provide evidence that the CPE-blocking activity cannot be attributed to an enhancer-blocking activity in the developing eye. Our results suggest that SF1 contains multiple non-overlapping activities that block diverse transcriptional influences from embryonic or adult enhancers, and from positive and negative chromatin structure. Such diverse insulating capabilities are consistent with the proposed roles of SF1 to functionally separate fushi tarazu (ftz), a non-Hox gene, from the enhancers and the organized chromatin of the neighboring Hox genes
Linear stability analysis of retrieval state in associative memory neural networks of spiking neurons
We study associative memory neural networks of the Hodgkin-Huxley type of
spiking neurons in which multiple periodic spatio-temporal patterns of spike
timing are memorized as limit-cycle-type attractors. In encoding the
spatio-temporal patterns, we assume the spike-timing-dependent synaptic
plasticity with the asymmetric time window. Analysis for periodic solution of
retrieval state reveals that if the area of the negative part of the time
window is equivalent to the positive part, then crosstalk among encoded
patterns vanishes. Phase transition due to the loss of the stability of
periodic solution is observed when we assume fast alpha-function for direct
interaction among neurons. In order to evaluate the critical point of this
phase transition, we employ Floquet theory in which the stability problem of
the infinite number of spiking neurons interacting with alpha-function is
reduced into the eigenvalue problem with the finite size of matrix. Numerical
integration of the single-body dynamics yields the explicit value of the
matrix, which enables us to determine the critical point of the phase
transition with a high degree of precision.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Non-Global Logarithms in Filtered Jet Algorithms
We analytically and numerically study the effect of perturbative gluons
emission on the "Filtering analysis", which is part of a subjet analysis
procedure proposed two years ago to possibly identify a low-mass Higgs boson
decaying into b\bar{b} at the LHC. This leads us to examine the non-global
structure of the resulting perturbative series in the leading single-log
large-N_c approximation, including all-orders numerical results, simple
analytical approximations to them and comments on the structure of their series
expansion. We then use these results to semi-analytically optimize the
parameters of the Filtering analysis so as to suppress as much as possible the
effect of underlying event and pile-up on the Higgs mass peak reconstruction
while keeping the major part of the perturbative radiation from the b\bar{b}
dipole.Comment: 47 pages, 25 figures, 1 figure and a few comments added, version
accepted for publication in JHE
A frame-shift mutation in COMTD1 is associated with impaired pheomelanin pigmentation in chicken
Author summaryVertebrates possess two types of melanin, red/yellow pheomelanin and black/brown eumelanin. In this study, we report that the recessive Inhibitor of gold phenotype in chicken, which causes a severe defect in pheomelanin pigmentation, is associated with a mutation that most likely inactivates the COMTD1 gene. This gene encodes an O-methyltransferase enzyme and is present throughout vertebrate evolution, but is one of the many genes in vertebrate genomes for which the biological function is still poorly understood. This is the first report of a COMTD1 mutation associated with a phenotypic effect. We show that the COMTD1 protein is present in mitochondria in pigment cells. Furthermore, inactivation of the gene in a mouse pigment cell line results in a significant reduction in metabolites that are important for the synthesis of pheomelanin. We hypothesize that COMTD1 activity protects pigment cells from oxidative stress and that inactivation of this function impairs the production of pheomelanin. It is likely that COMTD1 has a similar function in other cell types. This study establishes this chicken mutation as a model for further studies of COMTD1 function.The biochemical pathway regulating the synthesis of yellow/red pheomelanin is less well characterized than the synthesis of black/brown eumelanin. Inhibitor of gold (IG phenotype) is a plumage colour variant in chicken that provides an opportunity to further explore this pathway since the recessive allele (IG) at this locus is associated with a defect in the production of pheomelanin. IG/IG homozygotes display a marked dilution of red pheomelanin pigmentation, whilst black pigmentation (eumelanin) is only slightly affected. Here we show that a 2-base pair insertion (frame-shift mutation) in the 5(th) exon of the Catechol-O-methyltransferase containing domain 1 gene (COMTD1), expected to cause a complete or partial loss-of-function of the COMTD1 enzyme, shows complete concordance with the IG phenotype within and across breeds. We show that the COMTD1 protein is localized to mitochondria in pigment cells. Knockout of Comtd1 in a mouse melanocytic cell line results in a reduction in pheomelanin metabolites and significant alterations in metabolites of glutamate/glutathione, riboflavin, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Furthermore, COMTD1 overexpression enhanced cellular proliferation following chemical-induced transfection, a potential inducer of oxidative stress. These observations suggest that COMTD1 plays a protective role for melanocytes against oxidative stress and that this supports their ability to produce pheomelanin
Precision Measurement of the Mass of the h_c(1P1) State of Charmonium
A precision measurement of the mass of the h_c(1P1) state of charmonium has
been made using a sample of 24.5 million psi(2S) events produced in e+e-
annihilation at CESR. The reaction used was psi(2S) -> pi0 h_c, pi0 -> gamma
gamma, h_c -> gamma eta_c, and the reaction products were detected in the
CLEO-c detector.
Data have been analyzed both for the inclusive reaction and for the exclusive
reactions in which eta_c decays are reconstructed in fifteen hadronic decay
channels. Consistent results are obtained in the two analyses. The averaged
results of the present measurements are M(h_c)=3525.28+-0.19 (stat)+-0.12(syst)
MeV, and B(psi(2S) -> pi0 h_c)xB(h_c -> gamma eta_c)= (4.19+-0.32+-0.45)x10^-4.
Using the 3PJ centroid mass, Delta M_hf(1P)= - M(h_c) =
+0.02+-0.19+-0.13 MeV.Comment: 9 pages, available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/,
submitted to PR
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