51 research outputs found
Long-term observation of adsorbed heavy metal ions in sediment samples by MRI
Recently, we have reported studies of transport and sorption of heavy metal ions in water-saturated quartz sand columns under relatively fast water flow. In these experiments, clear indications for a fast and strong adsorption of the ions to the sediment could be found. Here we report the findings in a series of other experiments performed under static conditions. In this case, much higher concentrations of ions are adsorbed to the sand and remain immobile over time scales of more than a year. Changes in the MRI contrast observed for the sediment areas with the adsorbed ions indicate rearrangements in the distribution of the ions during the first days after administration to the sediment. EDX-studies of the ion distribution after several days indicate a spatially inhomogeneous distribution of adsorbed ions on the surface of the quartz sand. If the adsorbed ions are subjected to flow, a part of adsorbed ions moves away with the water flow. Also all ions are rapidly accessible to acid leaching
Side Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Biased Task Performance in a Cognitive Neuroscience Study
Summary:: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is increasingly used as a research tool for functional brain mapping in cognitive neuroscience. Despite being mostly tolerable, side effects of TMS could influence task performance in behavioural TMS studies. In order to test this issue, healthy subjects assessed the discomfort caused by the stimulation during a verbal working memory task. We investigated the relation between subjective disturbance and task performance. Subjects were stimulated during the delay period of a delayed-match-to-sample task above cortical areas that had been identified before to be involved in working memory. Task performance and subjective disturbance due to side effects were monitored. The subjects' grade of discomfort correlated with the error rates: the higher the discomfort, the more errors were made. Conclusively, TMS side effects may bias task performance in cognitive neuroscience studies and may thereby lead to misinterpretation of results. We emphasize the importance of controlling side effects of the stimulation as a source of biasing effects in TMS studie
Caudate Nucleus and Insular Activation During a Pain Suppression Paradigm Comparing Thermal and Electrical Stimulation
Pain modulation is an integral function of the nervous system. It is needed to adapt to chronic stimuli. To gain insights into pain suppression mechanisms, two studies concerning the suppression of the feeling of pain with different stimulation modalities (heat vs. electrical stimuli) but using the same stimulation paradigms were compared: 15 subjects each had been stimulated on both hands under the instruction to suppress the feeling of pain
Demonstrating Advantages of Neuromorphic Computation: A Pilot Study
Neuromorphic devices represent an attempt to mimic aspects of the brain's
architecture and dynamics with the aim of replicating its hallmark functional
capabilities in terms of computational power, robust learning and energy
efficiency. We employ a single-chip prototype of the BrainScaleS 2 neuromorphic
system to implement a proof-of-concept demonstration of reward-modulated
spike-timing-dependent plasticity in a spiking network that learns to play the
Pong video game by smooth pursuit. This system combines an electronic
mixed-signal substrate for emulating neuron and synapse dynamics with an
embedded digital processor for on-chip learning, which in this work also serves
to simulate the virtual environment and learning agent. The analog emulation of
neuronal membrane dynamics enables a 1000-fold acceleration with respect to
biological real-time, with the entire chip operating on a power budget of 57mW.
Compared to an equivalent simulation using state-of-the-art software, the
on-chip emulation is at least one order of magnitude faster and three orders of
magnitude more energy-efficient. We demonstrate how on-chip learning can
mitigate the effects of fixed-pattern noise, which is unavoidable in analog
substrates, while making use of temporal variability for action exploration.
Learning compensates imperfections of the physical substrate, as manifested in
neuronal parameter variability, by adapting synaptic weights to match
respective excitability of individual neurons.Comment: Added measurements with noise in NEST simulation, add notice about
journal publication. Frontiers in Neuromorphic Engineering (2019
Site Visiting the Seven Consortia in the Community-Based Public Health Initiative (CBPH): Reflections on Year Two.
Prepared for the Community-Based Public Health Initiative by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Ultrafast extrinsic spin-Hall currents
We consider the possibility of ultrafast extrinsic spin-Hall currents,
generated by skew scattering following the optical injection of charge or pure
spin currents. We propose a phenomenological model for this effect in quantum
well structures. An injected charge current leads to a spin-Hall-induced pure
spin current, and an injected pure spin current leads to a spin-Hall-induced
charge current. The resulting spin or charge accumulation can be measured
optically.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
Versatile emulation of spiking neural networks on an accelerated neuromorphic substrate
We present first experimental results on the novel BrainScaleS-2 neuromorphic
architecture based on an analog neuro-synaptic core and augmented by embedded
microprocessors for complex plasticity and experiment control. The high
acceleration factor of 1000 compared to biological dynamics enables the
execution of computationally expensive tasks, by allowing the fast emulation of
long-duration experiments or rapid iteration over many consecutive trials. The
flexibility of our architecture is demonstrated in a suite of five distinct
experiments, which emphasize different aspects of the BrainScaleS-2 system
Long-term observation of adsorbed heavy metal ions in sediment samples by MRI
Recently, we have reported studies of transport and sorption of heavy metal ions in water-saturated quartz sand columns under relatively fast water flow. In these experiments, clear indications for a fast and strong adsorption of the ions to the sediment could be found. Here we report the findings in a series of other experiments performed under static conditions. In this case, much higher concentrations of ions are adsorbed to the sand and remain immobile over time scales of more than a year. Changes in the MRI contrast observed for the sediment areas with the adsorbed ions indicate rearrangements in the distribution of the ions during the first days after administration to the sediment. EDX-studies of the ion distribution after several days indicate a spatially inhomogeneous distribution of adsorbed ions on the surface of the quartz sand. If the adsorbed ions are subjected to flow, a part of adsorbed ions moves away with the water flow. Also all ions are rapidly accessible to acid leaching
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