5,330 research outputs found
A Holistic Vision of the Socio-Legal Terrain
Tamanaha discusses Marc Galanter\u27s holistic vision of the socio-legal terrain. Galanter\u27s socio-legal vision has two central overlapping foci, and he always keeps an eye on each and on their interaction. The first focus is the official state legal system, which he examines from every conceivable angle: who becomes lawyers, how are they trained, how many lawyers are there, what are the circumstances of their work environment, who pays for their services. Galanter also focuses on what they are not doing (intentionally or otherwise), inquiring into the implications and consequences of their inaction. These inquiries extend from the official legal system to engage, encompass, and interact with Galanter\u27s second central focus: the social realm of intercourse and regulation. This social realm, in Galanter\u27s vision, is chock full of a plurality of interacting, overlapping, active regulatory systems of every kind-from religious systems, to corporations, to sports leagues, to the family
Effects of electrostatic correlations on electrokinetic phenomena
Classical theory of the electric double layer is based on the fundamental
assumption of a dilute solution of point ions. There are a number of situations
such as high applied voltages, high concentration of electrolytes, systems with
multivalent ions, or solvent-free ionic liquids where the classical theory is
often applied but the fundamental assumptions cannot be justified. Perhaps the
most basic assumption underlying continuum models in electrokinetics is the
mean-field approximation, that the electric field acting on each discrete ion
is self-consistently determined by the local mean charge density. This paper
considers situations where the mean-field approximation breaks down and
electrostatic correlations become important. A fourth-order modified Poisson
equation is developed that accounts for electrostatic correlations and captures
the essential features in a simple continuum framework. The theory is derived
variationally as a gradient approximation for non-local electrostatics, in
which the dielectric permittivity becomes a differential operator. The only new
parameter is a characteristic length scale for correlated ion pairs. The model
is able to capture subtle aspects of more detailed simulations based on Monte
Carlo, molecular dynamics, or density functional theory and allows for the
straightforward calculation of electrokinetic flows in correlated liquids, for
the first time. Departures from classical Helmholtz-Smoluchowski theory are
controlled by the dimensionless ratio of the correlation length to the Debye
screening length. Charge-density oscillations tend to reduce electro-osmotic
flow and streaming current, and over-screening of the surface charge can lead
to flow reversal. These effects also help to explain the apparent
charge-induced thickening of double layers in induced-charge electrokinetic
phenomena
Effect of Correlated Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Firing Rates on Predictions for Monocular Eye Closure Versus Monocular Retinal Inactivation
Monocular deprivation experiments can be used to distinguish between different ideas concerning properties of cortical synaptic plasticity. Monocular deprivation by lid suture causes a rapid disconnection of the deprived eye connected to cortical neurons whereas total inactivation of the deprived eye produces much less of an ocular dominance shift. In order to understand these results one needs to know how lid suture and retinal inactivation affect neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) that provide the cortical input. Recent experimental results by Linden et al. showed that monocular lid suture and monocular inactivation do not change the mean firing rates of LGN neurons but that lid suture reduces correlations between adjacent neurons whereas monocular inactivation leads to correlated firing. These, somewhat surprising, results contradict assumptions that have been made to explain the outcomes of different monocular deprivation protocols. Based on these experimental results we modify our assumptions about inputs to cortex during different deprivation protocols and show their implications when combined with different cortical plasticity rules. Using theoretical analysis, random matrix theory and simulations we show that high levels of correlations reduce the ocular dominance shift in learning rules that depend on homosynaptic depression (i.e., Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro type rules), consistent with experimental results, but have the opposite effect in rules that depend on heterosynaptic depression (i.e., Hebbian/principal component analysis type rules)
On universal partial words
A universal word for a finite alphabet and some integer is a
word over such that every word in appears exactly once as a subword
(cyclically or linearly). It is well-known and easy to prove that universal
words exist for any and . In this work we initiate the systematic study
of universal partial words. These are words that in addition to the letters
from may contain an arbitrary number of occurrences of a special `joker'
symbol , which can be substituted by any symbol from . For
example, is a linear partial word for the binary alphabet
and for (e.g., the first three letters of yield the
subwords and ). We present results on the existence and
non-existence of linear and cyclic universal partial words in different
situations (depending on the number of s and their positions),
including various explicit constructions. We also provide numerous examples of
universal partial words that we found with the help of a computer
- …