Selectivity for lnteraural Time Difference in the Owl's Midbrain

The barn owl uses the interaural difference in the timing of sounds to determine the azimuth of the source. When the sound has a wide frequency band, localization is precise. When localizing tones, however, the barn owl errs in a manner that suggests that it is confused by phantom targets. We report a neural equivalent of these phenomena as they are observed in the space-specific neuron of the owl's inferior colliculus. When stimulated with a tone, the space- specific neuron discharges maximally at interaural time differences (ITDs) that differ by one period of the stimulus tone. Changing the stimulus frequency changes the period of the ITD-response functions, but 1 ITD evokes, in most neurons, a maximal response, regardless of frequency. This ITD is the characteristic delay (CD). When stimulated with noise, there is a maximal response only to ITDs at or near the CD. Thus, the space-specific neuron can unambiguously signal the CD, provided that the signal contains more than 1 frequency. The preferential response to a single ITD, which is observed with noise stimuli, was also observed when the summed waveform of the best frequency and another tone, F2, was presented. The response of the space-specific neuron to these 2-tone stimuli could not be accounted for by the summing or averaging of the ITD-response functions obtained with the best frequency or F2 alone, suggesting that nonlinear neural processes are involved

A Study about Project Management for Industry-University Cooperation Dilemma

AbstractAs for strategic theory, industry-university cooperation is defined as an essential core functionality of industrial clusters. Industry-university cooperation has been recognized as an important strategy to make innovation happen in an industrial society today. Industry-university cooperation to organize a team that functions organizationally with a fixed-term at a university and the company, and can be defined as a project to address a purpose and values different from the past. Therefore, all those who have an interest in industry-university cooperation must be self-transforming. However, the need for self-transformation of individuals has not been strongly recognized up until now. In industry-university cooperation, conflicts of interest often exist. Therefore, those individuals interested in industry-university cooperation are faced with a dilemma. The purpose of this study is to reveal differences in values of the individuals in the company and that of the academic individual that produce such dilemmas. On top of that, the promotion of industry-university cooperation, project management methodologies on elimination of dilemmas arising from the difference in values are considered

A Study on the Efficient Estimation of the Payment Intention in the Mail Order Industry

AbstractThis paper presents investigating the customer payment intention prediction in the mail order industry. As the B2C market expands their market volume, the fraud transactions increase in number. The primary indicator for the detection are the shipping address, the recipient name, and the payment method. These information usually make use of the prediction in the Japanese mail order industry. Conventional detecting method for the fraud depends on the human working experiences so far. As the number of transaction becomes large, fraud detection becomes difficult. The mail order industry needs something new method for the detection. The result of the Google Flu Trends shows, accurate prediction needs the heuristics knowledge. For these backgrounds, we observe the transaction data with the customer attribute information gathered from a mail order company in Japan and characterized the customer with machine learning method. From the results of the intensive research, potential fraudulent transactions are identified. Intensive research revealed that the classification of the deliberate customer and the careless customer with machine learning. This result will make use of the customer screening at the time of order received

Representation of interaural time difference in the central nucleus of the barn owl's inferior colliculus

This paper investigates the role of the central nucleus of the barn owl's inferior colliculus in determination of the sound-source azimuth. The central nucleus contains many neurons that are sensitive to interaural time difference (ITD), the cue for azimuth in the barn owl. The response of these neurons varies in a cyclic manner with the ITD of a tone or noise burst. Response maxima recur at integer multiples of the period of the stimulating tone, or, if the stimulus is noise, at integer multiples of the period corresponding to the neuron's best frequency. Such neurons can signal, by means of their relative spike rate, the phase difference between the sounds reaching the left and right ears. Since an interaural phase difference corresponds to more than one ITD, these neurons represent ITD ambiguously. We call this phenomenon phase ambiguity. The central nucleus is tonotopically organized and its neurons are narrowly tuned to frequency. Neurons in an array perpendicular to isofrequency laminae form a physiological and anatomical unit; only one ITD, the array-specific ITD, activates all neurons in an array at the same relative level. We, therefore, may say that, in the central nucleus, an ITD is conserved in an array of neurons. Array-specific ITDs are mapped and encompass the entire auditory space of the barn owl. Individual space-specific neurons of the external nucleus, which receive inputs from a wide range of frequency channels (Knudsen and Konishi, 1978), are selective for a unique ITD. Space-specific neurons do not show phase ambiguity when stimulated with noise (Takahashi and Konishi, 1986). Space-specific neurons receive inputs from arrays that are selective for the same ITD. The collective response of the neurons in an array may be the basis for the absence of phase ambiguity in space-specific neurons

Production of viral vectors using recombinase-mediated cassette exchange

DNA viruses are often used as vectors for foreign gene expression, but large DNA region from cloned or authentic viral genomes must usually be handled to generate viral vectors. Here, we present a unique system for generating adenoviral vectors by directly substituting a gene of interest in a small transfected plasmid with a replaced gene in a replicating viral genome in Cre-expressing 293 cells using the recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) reaction. In combination with a positive selection of the viral cis-acting packaging signal connected with the gene of interest, the purpose vector was enriched to 97.5 and 99.8% after three and four cycles of infection, respectively. Our results also showed that the mutant loxP V (previously called loxP 2272), a variant target of Cre used in the RMCE reaction, was useful as a non-compatible mutant to wild-type loxP. This method could be useful for generating not only a large number of adenovirus vectors simultaneously, but also other DNA virus vectors including helper-dependent adenovirus vector

The owl’s cochlear nuclei process different sound localization cues

This paper discusses how the barn owl’s brain stem auditory pathway is divided into two physiologically and anatomically segregated channels for separate processing of interaural phase and intensity cues for sound localization. The paper also points out the power of the ‘‘downstream’’ approach by which the emergence of a higher‐order neuron’s stimulus selectivity can be traced through lower‐order stations

An Efficient Prediction Model for OTC Medicine Effect with the Package Inserts Information

AbstractIn Japan, general public those who are not medical experts usually buy OTC medicine at a pharmacy, depending on their illness condition. In this case, it is difficult for them to consider how much the OTC medicine is effective for their symptom. The components of OTC medicine have been used as ethical medicines for a long period of time.This is because the efficacy and safety of ethical medicine have been confirmed before being employed as OTC medicine. The information of those confirmed medicines is described in package inserts, which is aimed for medical professionals. Therefore, it is difficult for general public to understand what the package insert describes in terms of medical effects.In this study, from the information which appears in the package inserts of prescription medicines, a method for estimating the effect of OTC medicine is investigated. Also, a method of estimating the effects of medicines without directly compared data is proposed, only by using the information of package inserts of ethical medicines

An Improvement of Computer Based Test System Based on TCExam for Usage with A Large Number of Concurrent Users

Computer-based test or assessment has been used widely, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic, where many schools are conducting distance learning as well as distance examination. The need for a computer or software system to support education is inevitable. A range of solutions, from the free/open source software systems to the paid/proprietary ones have been publicly available. Still, an organization with limited resources prefers to find free or low-budget, while yet demanding reliable solutions. We have reported the use of the computer-based test in a new student recruitment test which is held country-wide. We developed the system based on TCExam, a free and open source computer-based test software, and successfully fulfilled the requirements, but with some tweaks. We found that the TCExam has a performance degradation when used by a large number of examinees concurrently, especially during specific phases during the test. This paper reports the result of our investigation to address the problem and suggests some modifications to the base codes as well as a recommendation of the hardware configuration. We evaluated the modified system in a simulated environment. We successfully achieved up to 56% performance gain using the modified system

Production of TRPM4 knockout cell line using rat cardiomyocyte H9c2

The method presented in this article are related to the research article entitled as "Role of the TRPM4 channel in mitochondrial function, calcium release, and ROS generation in oxidative stress" [1]. TRPM4, a non-selective monovalent cation channel, is not only involved in the generation of the action potential in cardiomyocytes, but also thought to be a key molecule in the development of the ischemia-reperfusion injury of the brain and the heart [2-5]. However, existing pharmacological inhibitors for the TRPM4 channel have problems of non-specificity [6]. This article describes methods used for targeted genomic deletion in the rat cardiomyocyte H9c2 using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system in order to suppress TRPM4 protein expression. Confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, Sanger sequencing, and western blotting are performed to confirm vector transfection and the subsequent knockout of the TRPM4 protein. These data provide information on the comprehensive analyses for knocking out the rat TRPM4 channel using CRISPR/Cas9. The analyses include confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, Sanger sequencing, and western blotting. This dataset will benefit biological and medical researchers studying the function of TRPM4-expressing cells including neurons, cardiomyocytes, and vascular endothelial cells. It is also useful to study the involvement of the TRPM4 channel in pathological processes such as cardiac arrhythmia and ischemia-reperfusion injury. The dataset can be used to guide the experiment of knocking out the TRPM4 gene and its subsequent application to the study of disease process caused by the gene

Role of the Transcription Factor BTB and CNC Homology 1 in a Rat Model of Acute Liver Injury Induced by Experimental Endotoxemia

Hepatic oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of several acute liver diseases, and free heme is thought to contribute to endotoxemia-induced acute liver injury. The heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) gene is upregulated and the δ-aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS1) gene is downregulated in the rat liver following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. BTB and CNC homology 1 (Bach1) is a heme-responsive transcription factor that normally represses HO-1 expression. In this study, we evaluated the changes in HO-1, ALAS1, and Bach1 expression and nuclear Bach1 expression in rat livers following intravenous LPS administration (10 mg/kg body weight). LPS significantly upregulated HO-1 mRNA and downregulated ALAS1 mRNA in the rat livers, suggesting that hepatic free heme concentrations are increased after LPS treatment. Bach1 mRNA was strongly induced after LPS injection. In contrast, nuclear Bach1 was significantly but transiently decreased after LPS treatment. Rats were also administered hemin (50 mg/kg body weight) intravenously to elevate heme concentrations, which decreased nuclear Bach1 levels. Our results suggest that elevated hepatic free heme may be associated with a decline of nuclear Bach1, and induction of Bach1 mRNA may compensate for the decreased nuclear Bach1 after LPS treatment in the rat liver