19,519 research outputs found
Word contexts enhance the neural representation of individual letters in early visual cortex
Visual context facilitates perception, but how this is neurally implemented remains unclear. One example of contextual facilitation is found in reading, where letters are more easily identified when embedded in a word. Bottom-up models explain this word advantage as a post-perceptual decision bias, while top-down models propose that word contexts enhance perception itself. Here, we arbitrate between these accounts by presenting words and nonwords and probing the representational fidelity of individual letters using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In line with top-down models, we find that word contexts enhance letter representations in early visual cortex. Moreover, we observe increased coupling between letter information in visual cortex and brain activity in key areas of the reading network, suggesting these areas may be the source of the enhancement. Our results provide evidence for top-down representational enhancement in word recognition, demonstrating that word contexts can modulate perceptual processing already at the earliest visual regions
Entanglement genesis by ancilla-based parity measurement in 2D circuit QED
We present an indirect two-qubit parity meter in planar circuit quantum
electrodynamics, realized by discrete interaction with an ancilla and a
subsequent projective ancilla measurement with a dedicated, dispersively
coupled resonator. Quantum process tomography and successful entanglement by
measurement demonstrate that the meter is intrinsically quantum non-demolition.
Separate interaction and measurement steps allow commencing subsequent data
qubit operations in parallel with ancilla measurement, offering time savings
over continuous schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; supplemental material with 5 figure
Coastal oceanography and sedimentology in New Zealand, 1967-91.
This paper reviews research that has taken place on physical oceanography and sedimentology on New Zealand's estuaries and the inner shelf since c. 1967. It includes estuarine sedimentation, tidal inlets, beach morphodynamics, nearshore and inner shelf sedimentation, tides and coastal currents, numerical modelling, short-period waves, tsunamis, and storm surges. An extensive reference list covering both published and unpublished material is included. Formal teaching and research programmes dealing with coastal landforms and the processes that shape them were only introduced to New Zealand universities in 1964; the history of the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research parallels and chronicles the development of physical coastal science in New Zealand, most of which has been accomplished in last 25 years
Direct microwave measurement of Andreev-bound-state dynamics in a proximitized semiconducting nanowire
The modern understanding of the Josephson effect in mesosopic devices derives
from the physics of Andreev bound states, fermionic modes that are localized in
a superconducting weak link. Recently, Josephson junctions constructed using
semiconducting nanowires have led to the realization of superconducting qubits
with gate-tunable Josephson energies. We have used a microwave circuit QED
architecture to detect Andreev bound states in such a gate-tunable junction
based on an aluminum-proximitized InAs nanowire. We demonstrate coherent
manipulation of these bound states, and track the bound-state fermion parity in
real time. Individual parity-switching events due to non-equilibrium
quasiparticles are observed with a characteristic timescale . The of a topological nanowire
junction sets a lower bound on the bandwidth required for control of Majorana
bound states
A hierarchy of linguistic predictions during natural language comprehension
Understanding spoken language requires transforming ambiguous acoustic streams into a hierarchy of representations, from phonemes to meaning. It has been suggested that the brain uses prediction to guide the interpretation of incoming input. However, the role of prediction in language processing remains disputed, with disagreement about both the ubiquity and representational nature of predictions. Here, we address both issues by analyzing brain recordings of participants listening to audiobooks, and using a deep neural network (GPT-2) to precisely quantify contextual predictions. First, we establish that brain responses to words are modulated by ubiquitous predictions. Next, we disentangle model-based predictions into distinct dimensions, revealing dissociable neural signatures of predictions about syntactic category (parts of speech), phonemes, and semantics. Finally, we show that high-level (word) predictions inform low-level (phoneme) predictions, supporting hierarchical predictive processing. Together, these results underscore the ubiquity of prediction in language processing, showing that the brain spontaneously predicts upcoming language at multiple levels of abstraction
Theory of pinning in a Superconducting Thin Film Pierced by a Ferromagnetic Columnar Defect
This is an analytical study of pinning and spontaneous vortex phase is a
system consisting of a superconducting thin film pierced by a long
ferromagnetic columnar defect of finite radius . The magnetic fields,
screening currents, energy and pinning forces for this system are calculated.
The interaction between the magnetic field of vortices and the magnetization
outside the plane of the film and its close proximity enhances vortex pinning
significantly. Spontaneous vortex phase appears when the magnetization of the
columnar defect is increased above a critical value. Transitions between phases
characterized by different number of flux quanta are also studied. These
results are generalized to the case when the superconductor is pierced by an
array of columnar defects.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The High Frequency Instrument of Planck: Requirements and Design
The Planck satellite is a project of the European Space Agency based on a wide international collaboration, including United States and Canadian laboratories. It is dedicated to the measurement of the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. The detectors of its High frequency Instrument (HFI) are bolometers cooled down to 100 mK. Their sensitivity will be limited by the photon noise of the CMB itself at low frequencies, and of the instrument background at high frequencies. The requirements on the measurement chain are directly related to the strategy of observation used for the satellite. Due to the scanning on the sky, time features of the measurement chain are directly transformed into angular features in the sky maps. This impacts the bolometer design as well as other elements: For example, the cooling system must present outstanding temperature stability, and the amplification chain must show, down to very low frequencies, a flat noise spectrum
Use of High Sensitivity Bolometers for Astronomy: Planck High Frequency Instrument
The Planck satellite is dedicated to the measurement of the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. It is a
project of the European Space Agency based on a wide international collaboration, including United States and Canadian laboratories. The detectors of its High Frequency Instrument (HFI) are bolometers cooled down to 100 mK. Their sensitivity will be limited by the photon noise of
the CMB itself at low frequencies, and of the instrument background at high frequencies. The requirements on the measurement chain are directly related to the strategy of observation used for the satellite. This impacts the bolometer design as well as other elements: The cooling system must present outstanding temperature stability, and the amplification chain must show a flat noise spectrum down to very low frequencies
The BOOMERANG North America Instrument: a balloon-borne bolometric radiometer optimized for measurements of cosmic background radiation anisotropies from 0.3 to 4 degrees
We describe the BOOMERANG North America (BNA) instrument, a balloon-borne
bolometric radiometer designed to map the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
radiation with 0.3 deg resolution over a significant portion of the sky. This
receiver employs new technologies in bolometers, readout electronics,
millimeter-wave optics and filters, cryogenics, scan and attitude
reconstruction. All these subsystems are described in detail in this paper. The
system has been fully calibrated in flight using a variety of techniques which
are described and compared. It has been able to obtain a measurement of the
first peak in the CMB angular power spectrum in a single balloon flight, few
hours long, and was a prototype of the BOOMERANG Long Duration Balloon (BLDB)
experiment.Comment: 40 pages, 22 figures, submitted to Ap
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