Signal transmission through the dark-adapted retina of the toad (Bufo marinus). Gain, convergence, and signal/noise.

Responses to light were recorded from rods, horizontal cells, and ganglion cells in dark-adapted toad eyecups. Sensitivity was defined as response amplitude per isomerization per rod for dim flashes covering the excitatory receptive field centers. Both sensitivity and spatial summation were found to increase by one order of magnitude between rods and horizontal cells, and by two orders of magnitude between rods and ganglion cells. Recordings from two hyperpolarizing bipolar cells showed a 20 times response increase between rods and bipolars. At absolute threshold for ganglion cells (Copenhagen, D.R., K. Donner, and T. Reuter. 1987. J. Physiol. 393:667-680) the dim flashes produce 10-50-microV responses in the rods. The cumulative gain exhibited at each subsequent synaptic transfer from the rods to the ganglion cells serves to boost these small amplitude signals to the level required for initiation of action potentials in the ganglion cells. The convergence of rod signals through increasing spatial summation serves to decrease the variation of responses to dim flashes, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, at absolute threshold for ganglion cells, the convergence typically increases the maximal signal-to-noise ratio from 0.6 in rods to 4.6 in ganglion cells

Applying Bag of System Calls for Anomalous Behavior Detection of Applications in Linux Containers

In this paper, we present the results of using bags of system calls for learning the behavior of Linux containers for use in anomaly-detection based intrusion detection system. By using system calls of the containers monitored from the host kernel for anomaly detection, the system does not require any prior knowledge of the container nature, neither does it require altering the container or the host kernel.Comment: Published version available on IEEE Xplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7414047/) arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1611.0305

The Railroad’s Impact on Land Values in the Upper Great Plains at the Closing of the Frontier

We show that the impact of transportation improvements on land values is complex with a direct, positive relationship on the price of land and also a positive relationship with the ratio of improved acres to total acres, another important influence on the per acre price of land. We construct a two step estimation that removes the impact of transportation outlets on the ratio of improved to total acres before including the transportation variables and the adjusted ratio variable as independent variables in a regression on price per acre. This estimation gives us the expected positive impact of railroads on land price. We also use Box-Cox regressions to show the semi-log form, a common model specification, may be inappropriate for our data and possibly then for other land price research.Box-Cox, Railroads, Great Plains

Consumer Preferences for Organic and Fair Trade Chocolate: Implications for Sustainable Agriculture in the Developing World

This paper examines results of a consumer survey measuring consumer awareness and attitudes concerning two labels, certified organic and certified Fair Trade. These labels provide information about the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the production and marketing practices of goods imported from the developing world. Conjoint analysis is used to measure how consumers value organic and fair trade compared to other attributes like price. Results indicate favorable attitudes and value placed on these the sustainable attributes, and imply a role for these labels to provide incentives for the adoption of more sustainable practices.conjoint analysis, Fair Trade, organic, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,