Recording advances for neural prosthetics

An important challenge for neural prosthetics research is to record from populations of neurons over long periods of time, ideally for the lifetime of the patient. Two new advances toward this goal are described, the use of local field potentials (LFPs) and autonomously positioned recording electrodes. LFPs are the composite extracellular potential field from several hundreds of neurons around the electrode tip. LFP recordings can be maintained for longer periods of time than single cell recordings. We find that similar information can be decoded from LFP and spike recordings, with better performance for state decodes with LFPs and, depending on the area, equivalent or slightly less than equivalent performance for signaling the direction of planned movements. Movable electrodes in microdrives can be adjusted in the tissue to optimize recordings, but their movements must be automated to be a practical benefit to patients. We have developed automation algorithms and a meso-scale autonomous electrode testbed, and demonstrated that this system can autonomously isolate and maintain the recorded signal quality of single cells in the cortex of awake, behaving monkeys. These two advances show promise for developing very long term recording for neural prosthetic applications

Nonpulmonary Outcomes of Asbestos Exposure

The adverse pulmonary effects of asbestos are well accepted in scientific circles. However, the extrapulmonary consequences of asbestos exposure are not as clearly defined. In this review the potential for asbestos to produce diseases of the peritoneum, immune, gastrointestinal (GIT), and reproductive systems are explored as evidenced in published, peer-reviewed literature. Several hundred epidemiological, in vivo, and in vitro publications analyzing the extrapulmonary effects of asbestos were used as sources to arrive at the conclusions and to establish areas needing further study. In order to be considered, each study had to monitor extrapulmonary outcomes following exposure to asbestos. The literature supports a strong association between asbestos exposure and peritoneal neoplasms. Correlations between asbestos exposure and immune-related disease are less conclusive; nevertheless, it was concluded from the combined autoimmune studies that there is a possibility for a higher-than-expected risk of systemic autoimmune disease among asbestos-exposed populations. In general, the GIT effects of asbestos exposure appear to be minimal, with the most likely outcome being development of stomach cancer. However, IARC recently concluded the evidence to support asbestos-induced stomach cancer to be “limited.” The strongest evidence for reproductive disease due to asbestos is in regard to ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, effects on fertility and the developing fetus are under-studied. The possibility of other asbestos-induced health effects does exist. These include brain-related tumors, blood disorders due to the mutagenic and hemolytic properties of asbestos, and peritoneal fibrosis. It is clear from the literature that the adverse properties of asbestos are not confined to the pulmonary system

Towards graphene based spin qubits

An experimental study of graphene nanoconstrictions and dots has been performed. Size scales of the fluctuations within these devices are extracted from transport measurements. These sizes are found to be roughly the same size as the constrictions and dots themselves. \ua9 2011 American Institute of Physics.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Transport detection of quantum Hall fluctuations in graphene

Low temperature magnetoconductance measurements were made in the vicinity of the charge neutrality point. Two origins for the fluctuations were identified close to the CNP. At very low magnetic fields there exist only mesoscopic magneto-conductance quantum interference features which develop rapidly as a function of density. At slightly higher fields (> 0.5T), close to the CNP, additional fluctuations track the quantum Hall sequence expected for monolayer graphene. These additional features are attributed to effects of locally charging individual quantum Hall (QH) localized states. These effects reveal a precursor to the quantum Hall effect (QHE) since, unlike previous transport observations of QH dots charging effects, they occur in the absence of quantum Hall plateaus or Shubnikov- de Haas (SdH) oscillations. From our transport data we are able to extract parameters that characterize the inhomogeneities in our device.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure