The role of terminators and occlusion cues in motion integration and segmentation: a neural network model

The perceptual interaction of terminators and occlusion cues with the functional processes of motion integration and segmentation is examined using a computational model. Inte-gration is necessary to overcome noise and the inherent ambiguity in locally measured motion direction (the aperture problem). Segmentation is required to detect the presence of motion discontinuities and to prevent spurious integration of motion signals between objects with different trajectories. Terminators are used for motion disambiguation, while occlusion cues are used to suppress motion noise at points where objects intersect. The model illustrates how competitive and cooperative interactions among cells carrying out these functions can account for a number of perceptual effects, including the chopsticks illusion and the occluded diamond illusion. Possible links to the neurophysiology of the middle temporal visual area (MT) are suggested

A Neural Model of Motion Processing and Visual Navigation by Cortical Area MST

Cells in the dorsal medial superior temporal cortex (MSTd) process optic flow generated by self-motion during visually-guided navigation. A neural model shows how interactions between well-known neural mechanisms (log polar cortical magnification, Gaussian motion-sensitive receptive fields, spatial pooling of motion-sensitive signals, and subtractive extraretinal eye movement signals) lead to emergent properties that quantitatively simulate neurophysiological data about MSTd cell properties and psychophysical data about human navigation. Model cells match MSTd neuron responses to optic flow stimuli placed in different parts of the visual field, including position invariance, tuning curves, preferred spiral directions, direction reversals, average response curves, and preferred locations for stimulus motion centers. The model shows how the preferred motion direction of the most active MSTd cells can explain human judgments of self-motion direction (heading), without using complex heading templates. The model explains when extraretinal eye movement signals are needed for accurate heading perception, and when retinal input is sufficient, and how heading judgments depend on scene layouts and rotation rates.Defense Research Projects Agency (N00014-92-J-4015); Office of Naval Research (N00014-92-J-1309, N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-95-1-0657, N00014-91-J-4100, N0014-94-I-0597); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334)

Regulation of autoreactive T cell responses by neonatal exposure to a self-peptide Ig-chimera

Prior investigations from this laboratory reported that exposure of the neonatal immune system to an immunoglobulin (Ig) chimera carrying a proteolipid protein (PLP) peptide drives the adult response to a challenge with the PLP peptide towards T cell deviation in the lymph node and an IFN-y-dependent T cell energy in the spleen. In addition, such exposure protects against experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). Herein, we wished to determine whether such a biased response is intrinsic to the PLP peptide or emanates from the delivery by Ig, thus allowing a similar outcome to ensue with other myelin peptides. Accordingly, the amino acid sequence 87-99 of myelin basic protein (MBP) was expressed on the same Ig backbone, and the resulting Ig-MBP chimera was tested for induction of neonatal immunity and protection against EAE involving diverse T cell specificities. The results revealed Th2 deviated T cell responses in both lymphoid organs, and the animals resisted induction of EAE. More striking, the splenic T cells produced IL-10 in addition to IL-4, providing an environment that facilitated bystander deviation of responses to unrelated encephalitogenic determinants and promoting protection against autoimmunity involving diverse T cell specificities. Thus, exposure of the neonatal immune system to antigenic peptides in the context of a self-Ig molecule fosters the development of a broad-spectrum protective immunity emanating from organ specific regulatory functions

Novel Vaccine Strategies to Prevent Herpes Simplex Virus Infection

Herpes simplex virus, which infects a majority of the population, remains a significant human pathogen for which no effective vaccine exists. Despite decades of intensive research, this virus has resisted numerous classical and cutting edge approaches. We can only hope that additional research into new vaccines ideas as well as the fundamentals of how the virus interacts with the immune system will someday lead to the design of an effective vaccine. The first part of this dissertation focuses on the virus and how it interacts with various immune cells in the body. HSV-1 exerts a number of influences on a number of key immune cells, especially dendritic cells. The overview goes on to fully describe these interactions, the nature of the immune response generated to the virus, as well as part and possible future vaccine strategies. The second part explores the use of hsp70 and peptide as an effective vaccine candidate in the neonate, in which infection can lead to life threatening situations. Results suggest that hsp70 is an effective adjuvant in neonates. The third section examines the use of hsp70 and peptide as a mucosal adjuvant in adult mice. These data also demonstrate that hsp70 can act as an potent mucosal adjuvant. The final section explores utilizing an anti-DNA antibody to enhance targeting of plasmid DNA to antigen presenting cells in order to improve immune responses. Results indicate that anti-DNA antibody enhances immune responses to plasmid encoded antigen. In all, we hope that these novel vaccine approaches may one day be used in humans to induce protective immune responses to HSV-1

Local field potentials reflect multiple spatial scales in V4

Local field potentials (LFP) reflect the properties of neuronal circuits or columns recorded in a volume around a microelectrode (Buzsáki et al., 2012). The extent of this integration volume has been a subject of some debate, with estimates ranging from a few hundred microns (Katzner et al., 2009; Xing et al., 2009) to several millimeters (Kreiman et al., 2006). We estimated receptive fields (RFs) of multi-unit activity (MUA) and LFPs at an intermediate level of visual processing, in area V4 of two macaques. The spatial structure of LFP receptive fields varied greatly as a function of time lag following stimulus onset, with the retinotopy of LFPs matching that of MUAs at a restricted set of time lags. A model-based analysis of the LFPs allowed us to recover two distinct stimulus-triggered components: an MUA-like retinotopic component that originated in a small volume around the microelectrodes (~350 μm), and a second component that was shared across the entire V4 region; this second component had tuning properties unrelated to those of the MUAs. Our results suggest that the LFP reflects neural activity across multiple spatial scales, which both complicates its interpretation and offers new opportunities for investigating the large-scale structure of network processing

A Year in Space for the CubeSat Multispectral Observing System: CUMULOS

CUMULOS is a three-camera system flying as a secondary payload on the Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) mission with the goals of researching the use of uncooled commercial infrared cameras for Earth remote sensing and demonstrating unique nighttime remote sensing capabilities. Three separate cameras comprise the CUMULOS payload: 1) a visible (VIS) Si CMOS camera, 2) a shortwave infrared (SWIR) InGaAs camera, and 3) a longwave infrared (LWIR) vanadium oxide microbolometer. This paper reviews on-orbit operations during the past year, in-space calibration observations and techniques, and Earth remote sensing highlights from the first year of space operations. CUMULOS operations commenced on 8 June 2018 following the successful completion of the primary ISARA mission. Some of the unique contributions from the CUMULOS payloads include: 1) demonstrating the use of bright stars for on-orbit radiometric calibration of CubeSat payloads, 2) acquisition of science-quality nighttime lights data at 130-m resolution, and 3) operating the first simple Earth observing infrared payloads successfully flown on a CubeSat. Sample remote sensing results include images of: cities at night, ship lights (including fishing vessels), oil industry gas flares, serious wildfires, volcanic activity, and daytime and nighttime clouds. The CUMULOS VIS camera has measured calibrated nightlights imagery of major cities such as Los Angeles, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Istanbul, and London at more than 5x the resolution of VIIRS. The utility of these data for measuring light pollution, and mapping urban growth and infrastructure development at higher resolution than VIIRS is being studied, with an emphasis placed on Los Angeles. The Carr , Camp and Woolsey fires from the 2018 California fire season were imaged with all three cameras and results highlight the excellent wildfire imaging performance that can be achieved by small sensors. The SWIR camera has exhibited extreme sensitivity to flare and fire hotspots, and was even capable of detecting airglow-illuminated nighttime cloud structures by taking advantage of the strong OH emissions within its 0.9-1.7 micron bandpass. The LWIR microbolometer has proven successful at providing cloud context imagery for our nightlights mapping experiments, can detect very large fires and the brightest flare hotspots, and can also image terrain temperature variation and urban heat islands at 300-m resolution. CUMULOS capabilities show the potential of CubeSats and small sensors to perform several VIIRS-like nighttime mission areas in which wide area coverage can be traded for greater resolution over a smaller field of view. The sensor has been used in collaboration with VIIRS researchers to explore these mission areas and side-by-side results will be presented illustrating the capabilities as well as the limitations of small aperture LEO CubeSat systems

CubeSat Laser Communication Crosslink Pointing Demonstration

An opportunity arose to demonstrate optical crosslink pointing between two CubeSats in LEO using spacecraft not specifically designed for that purpose. The AeroCube-7 spacecraft, designed for optical downlinks as part of the Optical Communication and Sensor Demonstration mission, was tasked to point its communications laser at the ISARA spacecraft to demonstrate the capability of one CubeSat to track another in LEO. The ISARA spacecraft, which does not carry a data receiver, but does carry a short-wave infrared camera (SWIR) as part of the CUMULOS payload, was tasked to track the AeroCube-7 spacecraft and use the SWIR camera to record the OCSD laser. The SWIR images were downloaded over an RF channel and used to evaluate the pointing and tracking of both spacecraft. Two successful tests of crosslink pointing were completed between AeroCube-7 and ISARA, providing a demonstration in principle of the capability, and laying the groundwork for more refined experiments that will use this technique for on-orbit measurements of beam profiling. Further tests between AeroCube-11 and ISARA are also in preparation to demonstrate crosslink pointing in a more-challenging orbital configuration

CD4+CD25+ T Cells Regulate Virus-specific Primary and Memory CD8+ T Cell Responses

Naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells appear important to prevent activation of autoreactive T cells. This article demonstrates that the magnitude of a CD8+ T cell–mediated immune response to an acute viral infection is also subject to control by CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells (Treg). Accordingly, if natural Treg were depleted with specific anti-CD25 antibody before infection with HSV, the resultant CD8+ T cell response to the immunodominant peptide SSIEFARL was significantly enhanced. This was shown by several in vitro measures of CD8+ T cell reactivity and by assays that directly determine CD8+ T cell function, such as proliferation and cytotoxicity in vivo. The enhanced responsiveness in CD25-depleted animals was between three- and fourfold with the effect evident both in the acute and memory phases of the immune response. Surprisingly, HSV infection resulted in enhanced Treg function with such cells able to suppress CD8+ T cell responses to both viral and unrelated antigens. Our results are discussed both in term of how viral infection might temporarily diminish immunity to other infectious agents and their application to vaccines. Thus, controlling suppressor effects at the time of vaccination could result in more effective immunity

Spatial Resolution of Local Field Potential Signals in Macaque V4

A main challenge for the development of cortical visual prostheses is to spatially localize individual spots of light, called phosphenes, by assigning appropriate stimulating parameters to implanted electrodes. Imitating the natural responses to phosphene-like stimuli at different positions can help in designing a systematic procedure to determine these parameters. The key characteristic of such a system is the ability to discriminate between responses to different positions in the visual field. While most previous prosthetic devices have targeted the primary visual cortex, the extrastriate cortex has the advantage of covering a large part of the visual field with a smaller amount of cortical tissue, providing the possibility of a more compact implant. Here, we studied how well ensembles of Multiunit activity (MUA) and Local Field Potentials (LFPs) responses from extrastriate cortical visual area V4 of a behaving macaque monkey can discriminate between two-dimensional spatial positions. We found that despite the large receptive field sizes in V4, the combined responses from multiple sites, whether MUA or LFP, has the capability for fine and coarse discrimination of positions. We identified a selection procedure that could significantly increase the discrimination performance while reducing the required number of electrodes. Analysis of noise correlation in MUA and LFP responses showed that noise correlations in LFP responses carry more information about the spatial positions. Overall, these findings suggest that spatial positions could be localized with patterned stimulation in extrastriate area V4