Resource-driven Substructural Defeasible Logic

Linear Logic and Defeasible Logic have been adopted to formalise different features relevant to agents: consumption of resources, and reasoning with exceptions. We propose a framework to combine sub-structural features, corresponding to the consumption of resources, with defeasibility aspects, and we discuss the design choices for the framework

Inhibitory postsynaptic actions of taurine, GABA and other amino acids on motoneurons of the isolated frog spinal cord

The actions of glycine, GABA, α-alanine, β-alanine and taurine were studied by intracellular recordings from lumbar motoneurons of the isolated spinal cord of the frog. All amino acids tested produced a reduction in the amplitude of postsynaptic potentials, a blockade of the antidromic action potential and an increase of membrane conductance. Furthermore, membrane polarizations occurred, which were always in the same direction as the IPSP. All these effects indicate a postsynaptic inhibitory action of these amino acids. When the relative strength of different amino acids was compared, taurine had the strongest inhibitory potency, followed by β-alanine, α α-alanine, GABA and glycine. Topically applied strychnine and picrotoxin induced different changes of postsynaptic potentials, indicating that distinct inhibitory systems might be influenced by these two convulsants. Interactions with amino acids showed that picrotoxin selectively diminished the postsynaptic actions of GABA, while strychnine reduced the effects of taurine, glycine, α- and β-alanine. But differences in the susceptibility of these amino acid actions to strychnine could be detected: the action of taurine was more sensitively blocked by strychnine compared with glycine, α- and β-alanine. With regard to these results the importance of taurine and GABA as transmitters of postsynaptic inhibition on motoneurons in the spinal cord of the frog is discussed

Relaxation in glassforming liquids and amorphous solids

The field of viscousliquid and glassysolid dynamics is reviewed by a process of posing the key questions that need to be answered, and then providing the best answers available to the authors and their advisors at this time. The subject is divided into four parts, three of them dealing with behavior in different domains of temperature with respect to the glass transition temperature, Tg,and a fourth dealing with “short time processes.” The first part tackles the high temperature regime T\u3eTg, in which the system is ergodic and the evolution of the viscousliquid toward the condition at Tg is in focus. The second part deals with the regime T∼Tg, where the system is nonergodic except for very long annealing times, hence has time-dependent properties (aging and annealing). The third part discusses behavior when the system is completely frozen with respect to the primary relaxation process but in which secondary processes, particularly those responsible for “superionic” conductivity, and dopart mobility in amorphous silicon, remain active. In the fourth part we focus on the behavior of the system at the crossover between the low frequency vibrational components of the molecular motion and its high frequency relaxational components, paying particular attention to very recent developments in the short time dielectric response and the high Qmechanical response

Frequency behavior of Raman coupling coefficient in glasses

Low-frequency Raman coupling coefficient of 11 different glasses is evaluated. It is found that the coupling coefficient demonstrates a universal linear frequency behavior near the boson peak maximum and a superlinear behavior at very low frequencies. The last observation suggests vanishing of the coupling coefficient when frequency tends to zero. The results are discussed in terms of the vibration wavefunction that combines features of localized and extended modes.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Logics for Petri nets with propagating failures

Petri nets play a central role in the formal modelling of a wide range of complex systems and scenarios. Their ability to handle with both concurrency and resource awareness justifies their spread in the current formal development practices. On the logic side, Dynamic Logics are widely accepted as the de facto formalisms to reason about computational systems. However, as usual, the application to new situations raises new challenges and issues. The ubiquity of failures in the execution of current systems, interpreted in these models as triggered events that are not followed by the corresponding transition, entails not only the adjustment of these structures to deal with this reality, but also the introduction of new logics adequate to this emerging phenomenon. This paper contributes to this challenge by exploring a combination of two previous works of the authors, namely the Propositional Dynamic Logic for Petri Nets [1] and a parametric construction of multi-valued dynamic logics presented in [13]. This exercise results in a new family of Dynamic Logics for Petri Nets suitable to deal with firing failures.publishe

Pseudopotential study of binding properties of solids within generalized gradient approximations: The role of core-valence exchange-correlation

In ab initio pseudopotential calculations within density-functional theory the nonlinear exchange-correlation interaction between valence and core electrons is often treated linearly through the pseudopotential. We discuss the accuracy and limitations of this approximation regarding a comparison of the local density approximation (LDA) and generalized gradient approximations (GGA), which we find to describe core-valence exchange-correlation markedly different. (1) Evaluating the binding properties of a number of typical solids we demonstrate that the pseudopotential approach and namely the linearization of core-valence exchange-correlation are both accurate and limited in the same way in GGA as in LDA. (2) Examining the practice to carry out GGA calculations using pseudopotentials derived within LDA we show that the ensuing results differ significantly from those obtained using pseudopotentials derived within GGA. As principal source of these differences we identify the distinct behavior of core-valence exchange-correlation in LDA and GGA which, accordingly, contributes substantially to the GGA induced changes of calculated binding properties.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B, other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Investigation of the Enteric Pathogenic Potential of Oral Campylobacter concisus Strains Isolated from Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

BACKGROUND: Campylobacter concisus, a bacterium colonizing the human oral cavity, has been shown to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study investigated if patients with IBD are colonized with specific oral C. concisus strains that have potential to cause enteric diseases. METHODOLOGY: Seventy oral and enteric C. concisus isolates obtained from eight patients with IBD and six controls were examined for housekeeping genes by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), Caco2 cell invasion by gentamicin-protection-assay, protein analysis by mass spectrometry and SDS-PAGE, and morphology by scanning electron microscopy. The whole genome sequenced C. concisus strain 13826 which was isolated from an individual with bloody diarrhea was included in MLST analysis. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: MLST analysis showed that 87.5% of individuals whose C. concisus belonged to Cluster I had inflammatory enteric diseases (six IBD and one with bloody diarrhea), which was significantly higher than that in the remaining individuals (28.6%) (P<0.05). Enteric invasive C. concisus (EICC) oral strain was detected in 50% of patients with IBD and none of the controls. All EICC strains were in Cluster 1. The C. concisus strain colonizing intestinal tissues of patient No. 1 was closely related to the oral C. concisus strain from patient No. 6 and had gene recombination with the patient's own oral C. concisus. The oral and intestinal C. concisus strains of patient No. 3 were the same strain. Some individuals were colonized with multiple oral C. concisus strains that have undergone natural recombination. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that patients with IBD are colonized with specific oral C. concisus strains, with some being EICC strains. C. concisus colonizing intestinal tissues of patients with IBD at least in some instances results from an endogenous colonization of the patient's oral C. concisus and that C. concisus strains undergo natural recombination

A computational psychiatry approach identifies how alpha-2A noradrenergic agonist Guanfacine affects feature-based reinforcement learning in the macaque

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Parameter estimation suggested that improved learning is not accounted for by varying a single reinforcement learning mechanism, but by changing the set of parameter values to higher learning rates and stronger suppression of non-chosen over chosen feature information. These findings provide an important starting point for developing nonhuman primate models to discern the synaptic mechanisms of attention and learning functions within the context of a computational neuropsychiatry framework.This research was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation (MEDI). We thank Dr. Hongying Wang for invaluable help with drug administration and animal careHassani, SA.; Oemisch, M.; Balcarras, M.; Westendorff, S.; Ardid-Ramírez, JS.; Van Der Meer, MA.; Tiesinga, P.... (2017). 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