22,997 research outputs found
The computation of the cohomology rings of all groups of order 128
We describe the computation of the mod-2 cohomology rings of all 2328 groups
of order 128. One consequence is that all groups of order less than 256 satisfy
the strong form of Benson's Regularity Conjecture.Comment: 15 pages; revised versio
Discs in misaligned binary systems
We perform SPH simulations to study precession and changes in alignment
between the circumprimary disc and the binary orbit in misaligned binary
systems. We find that the precession process can be described by the rigid-disc
approximation, where the disc is considered as a rigid body interacting with
the binary companion only gravitationally. Precession also causes change in
alignment between the rotational axis of the disc and the spin axis of the
primary star. This type of alignment is of great important for explaining the
origin of spin-orbit misaligned planetary systems. However, we find that the
rigid-disc approximation fails to describe changes in alignment between the
disc and the binary orbit. This is because the alignment process is a
consequence of interactions that involve the fluidity of the disc, such as the
tidal interaction and the encounter interaction. Furthermore, simulation
results show that there are not only alignment processes, which bring the
components towards alignment, but also anti-alignment processes, which tend to
misalign the components. The alignment process dominates in systems with
misalignment angle near 90 degrees, while the anti-alignment process dominates
in systems with the misalignment angle near 0 or 180 degrees. This means that
highly misaligned systems will become more aligned but slightly misaligned
systems will become more misaligned.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA
Effects of low incubation temperatures on the bactericidal activity of anti-tuberculosis drugs
OBJECTIVES: to explore the effect of low incubation temperatures and the consequent slowing of bacterial metabolism on the bactericidal action of anti-tuberculosis drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
METHODS: counting of surviving bacteria during exposure of static cultures to 1 mg/L isoniazid, 2 mg/L rifampicin, 0.5 or 2 mg/L TMC207 and 40 or 160 mg/L pyrazinamide, usually for periods of 21 days at temperatures of 37, 25, 22, 19, 16 or 8°C.
RESULTS: the bactericidal activities of isoniazid and rifampicin were progressively reduced at 25 and 22°C, and were minimal at lower temperatures. TMC207 was immediately bactericidal at 37°C, in contrast to the early static phase reported with log phase cultures, and showed less change in activity as incubation temperatures were reduced than did rifampicin or isoniazid. Pyrazinamide was more bactericidal when incubation temperatures were reduced below 37°C and when the static seed cultures were most dormant.
CONCLUSIONS: these results can be explained by the surmise that at low temperatures bacterial energy is at a low level with only just sufficient ATP to maintain homeostasis, making the bacteria more susceptible to the blocking of ATP synthesis by TMC207. Insufficient ATP at low temperature would also hinder the export of pyrazinoic acid, the toxic product of the pro-drug pyrazinamide, from the mycobacterial cell by an inefficient efflux pump that requires energ
Prosocial and antisocial children's perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours
This study investigated whether peer-nominated prosocial and antisocial children have different perceptions of the motives underlying peers' prosocial actions. Eighty-seven children, aged 10-12 years old, completed peer-nomination measures of social behaviour. On the basis of numbers of social nominations received, a subsample of 51 children (32 who were peer-nominated as 'prosocial', and 18 who were peer-nominated as 'antisocial') then recorded their perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours. Expressed motives were categorized predominantly into three categories, coinciding with Turiel's (1978) 'moral', 'conventional', and 'personal domains'. Results indicate that children's social reputation is associated with the extent to which they perceive peers' prosocial motives as 'personal' or 'moral', with more prosocial children attributing moral motives, and more antisocial children attributing personal motives. Although traditionally Turiel's domain theory has been used to understand 'antisocial' children's behaviour, the current findings suggest that 'prosocial' children's behaviour may also be related to domains of judgment
Emotive computing may have a role in telecare
This brief paper sets out arguments for the introduction of new technologies into telecare and lifestyle monitoring that can detect and monitor the emotive state of patients. The significantly increased use of computers by older people will enable the elements of emotive computing to be integrated with features such as keyboards and webcams, to provide additional information on emotional state. When this is combined with other data, there will be significant opportunities for system enhancement and the identification of changes in user status, and hence of need. The ubiquity of home computing makes the keyboard a very attractive, economic and non-intrusive means of data collection and analysis
Discrimination and synthesis of recursive quantum states in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces
We propose an interferometric method for statistically discriminating between
nonorthogonal states in high dimensional Hilbert spaces for use in quantum
information processing. The method is illustrated for the case of photon
orbital angular momentum (OAM) states. These states belong to pairs of bases
that are mutually unbiased on a sequence of two-dimensional subspaces of the
full Hilbert space, but the vectors within the same basis are not necessarily
orthogonal to each other. Over multiple trials, this method allows
distinguishing OAM eigenstates from superpositions of multiple such
eigenstates. Variations of the same method are then shown to be capable of
preparing and detecting arbitrary linear combinations of states in Hilbert
space. One further variation allows the construction of chains of states
obeying recurrence relations on the Hilbert space itself, opening a new range
of possibilities for more abstract information-coding algorithms to be carried
out experimentally in a simple manner. Among other applications, we show that
this approach provides a simplified means of switching between pairs of
high-dimensional mutually unbiased OAM bases
Stimulus-invariant processing and spectrotemporal reverse correlation in primary auditory cortex
The spectrotemporal receptive field (STRF) provides a versatile and
integrated, spectral and temporal, functional characterization of single cells
in primary auditory cortex (AI). In this paper, we explore the origin of, and
relationship between, different ways of measuring and analyzing an STRF. We
demonstrate that STRFs measured using a spectrotemporally diverse array of
broadband stimuli -- such as dynamic ripples, spectrotemporally white noise,
and temporally orthogonal ripple combinations (TORCs) -- are very similar,
confirming earlier findings that the STRF is a robust linear descriptor of the
cell. We also present a new deterministic analysis framework that employs the
Fourier series to describe the spectrotemporal modulations contained in the
stimuli and responses. Additional insights into the STRF measurements,
including the nature and interpretation of measurement errors, is presented
using the Fourier transform, coupled to singular-value decomposition (SVD), and
variability analyses including bootstrap. The results promote the utility of
the STRF as a core functional descriptor of neurons in AI.Comment: 42 pages, 8 Figures; to appear in Journal of Computational
Neuroscienc
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