3,816 research outputs found
Properties of the Optokinetic Motor Fibres in the Rock Lobster: Build-Up, Flipback, Afterdischarge and Memory, Shown by Their Firing Patterns
The properties of sets of motor fibres responding to both clockwise and anticlockwise rotation have been studied in the oculomotor nerve of the rock lobster. There are probably three, but perhaps four, units in each set.
None of these fibres has statocyst input, but there is weak input onto the tonic fibres from the antennal joints such that the eye turns in the direction toward which the antenna points.
Many preparations show bilateral visual input onto all fibres but the degree of coupling between the eyes is very variable, and at times can be nearly totally absent.
Depending on the speed of rotation the fibres show a gradual build-up in frequency, during rotation in the preferred direction, interrupted by flipbacks. During the fast stage of the resulting nystagmic movements all agonistic fibres can be completely inhibited and all antagonistic ones can be activated, usually for a period of about 0.5 sec.
Fibre activity is demonstrated which appears to underlie an ‘optokinetic memory’ of contrasting target position in the visual field. It consists of (a) very prolonged after-discharges for a stationary striped pattern (b) resumption of discharges at an appropriate frequency after dark periods up to 2 min, and (c) adjustment of such frequencies to changes in stripe position during the dark period.
The fibres show habituation to repeated stripe movement but the response can be dishabituated by passive rotation of the animal.
The largest visual responses were obtained to intermediate speeds of stripe rotation (about 2°/sec)
Input Sources and Properties of Position-Sensitive Oculomotor Fibres in the Rock Lobster, Panulirus Interruptus (Randall)
Sets of head-up, head-down, eye-up and eye-down motor fibres were studied in the oculomotor nerve of the rock lobster. An eye-withdrawal fibre was also investigated.
Apart from the statocyst input, light distribution on the eyes has the strongest influence on the position-sensitive fibres. Weaker optokinetic input from moving targets is also present.
Strongly habituating input is obtained from the antennal joints. This input causes orientation of the eye toward the direction in which the antenna points.
The same antennule movement in the vertical plane can result in either excitation or inhibition of the head-down fibre, suggesting the presence of two opposing inputs, presumably from the statocysts and basal joint receptors of the antennule.
The inputs on to the position-sensitive fibres which indicate body position are such as to stabilize the eye position in space during body movement. The optokinetic and antennal joint inputs are probably involved in tracking and antennal pointing reactions.
The eye-withdrawal fibre is stimulated by touch of the head and around the eye, but is inhibited by the excited state
Spectral Classification and Effective Temperatures of L and T Dwarfs Based of Near-Infrared Spectra
We have obtained near-infrared spectra of L dwarfs, L/T transition objects
and T dwarfs using Subaru. Resulting spectra are examined in detail to see
their dependence on the spectral types. We have obtained bolometric
luminosities of the objects with known parallaxes in our sample, first by
integrating the spectra and second by K band bolometric correction. We derive
the relation between effective temperature and spectral type.Comment: To appear in May 20, 2004 issue of ApJ There is a companion paper by
Tsuji, Nakajima and Yanagisaw
Off-diagonal Wave Function Monte Carlo Studies of Hubbard Model I
We propose a Monte Carlo method, which is a hybrid method of the quantum
Monte Carlo method and variational Monte Carlo theory, to study the Hubbard
model. The theory is based on the off-diagonal and the Gutzwiller type
correlation factors which are taken into account by a Monte Carlo algorithm. In
the 4x4 system our method is able to reproduce the exact results obtained by
the diagonalization. An application is given to investigate the half-filled
band case of two-dimensional square lattice. The energy is favorably compared
with quantum Monte Carlo data.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure
SuprimeCam Observation of Sporadic Meteors during Perseids 2004
We report the serendipitous findings of 13 faint meteors and 44 artificial
space objects by Subaru SuprimeCam imaging observations during 11-16 August
2004. The meteors, at about 100km altitude, and artificial satellites/debris in
orbit, at 500km altitude or higher, were clearly discriminated by their
apparent defocused image sizes. CCD photometry of the 13 meteors, including 1
Perseid, 1 Aquarid, and 11 sporadic meteors, was performed. We defined a peak
video-rate magnitude by comparing the integrated photon counts from the
brightest portion of the track traversed within 33ms to those from a 0-mag star
during the same time duration. This definition gives magnitudes in the range
4.0< V_{vr} <6.4 and 4.1< I_{vr}<5.9 for these 13 meteors. The corresponding
magnitude for virtual naked-eye observers could be somewhat fainter especially
for the V-band observation, in which the [OI] 5577 line lasting about 1 sec as
an afterglow could contribute to the integrated flux of the present 5-10 min
CCD exposures. Although the spatial resolution is insufficient to resolve the
source size of anything smaller than about 1 m, we developed a new estimate of
the collisionally excited column diameter of these meteors. A diameter as small
as a few mm was derived from their collisionally excited photon rates, meteor
speed, and the volume density of the oxygen atoms at the 100km altitude. The
actual column diameter of the radiating zone, however, could be as large as few
100m because the excited atoms travel that distance before they emit forbidden
lines in 0.7 sec of its average lifetime. Among the 44 artificial space
objects, we confirmed that 17 were cataloged satellites/space debris.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables, submitted to PAS
Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order in the filled skutterudite system PrNdOsSb
Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order have been
investigated in the filled skutterudite system
PrNdOsSb as a function of composition in magnetic
fields up to 9 tesla and at temperatures between 50 mK and 10 K. Electrical
resistivity measurements indicate that the high field ordered phase (HFOP),
which has been identified with antiferroquadruoplar order, persists to
0.5. The superconducting critical temperature of PrOsSb
is depressed linearly with Nd concentration to 0.55, whereas the
Curie temperature of NdOsSb is depressed linearly with Pr
composition to () 0.45. In the superconducting region, the upper
critical field is depressed quadratically with in the range 0
0.3, exhibits a kink at 0.3, and then
decreases linearly with in the range 0.3 0.6. The
behavior of appears to be due to pair breaking caused by the
applied magnetic field and the exhange field associated with the polarization
of the Nd magnetic moments, in the superconducting state. From magnetic
susceptibility measurements, the correlations between the Nd moments in the
superconducting state appear to change from ferromagnetic in the range 0.3
0.6 to antiferromagnetic in the range 0
0.3. Specific heat measurements on a sample with 0.45
indicate that magnetic order occurs in the superconducting state, as is also
inferred from the depression of with .Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, currently submitted to Phys. Rev.
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