Visual adaptation to convexity in macaque area V4

Aftereffects are perceptual illusions caused by visual adaptation to one or more stimulus attribute, such as orientation, motion, or shape. Neurophysiological studies seeking to understand the basis of visual adaptation have observed firing rate reduction and changes in tuning of stimulus-selective neurons following periods of prolonged visual stimulation. In the domain of shape, recent psychophysical work has shown that adaptation to a convex pattern induces a subsequently seen rectangle to appear slightly concave. In the present study, we investigate the possible contribution of V4 neurons of rhesus monkeys, which are thought to be involved in the coding of convexity, to shape-specific adaptation. Visually responsive neurons were monitored during the brief presentation of simple shapes varying in their convexity level. Each test presentation was preceded by either a blank period or several seconds of adaptation to a convex or concave stimulus, presented in two different sizes. Adaptation consistently shifted the tuning of neurons away from the convex or concave adapter, including shifting response to the neutral rectangle in the direction of the opposite convexity. This repulsive shift resembled the known perceptual distortion associated with adaptation to such stimuli. In addition, adaptation caused a nonspecific response decrease, as well as a specific decrease for repeated stimuli. The latter effects were observed whether or not the adapting and test stimuli matched closely in their size. Taken together, these results provide evidence for shape-specific adaptation of neurons in area V4, which may contribute to the perception of the convexity aftereffect

Lateral Buckling of Prismatic Members About an Imposed Axis of Rotation

This paper deals with the lateral buckling of prismatic members whose position of the axis of rotation is imposed by the conditions of lateral support. As a function of the type of connection with the lateral support, the rotation may be free or hindered (elastic end restraint). This may concern, for instance, the case of a purlin stabilized by a roof structure or of a column stabilized by an external cladding or by another type of efficient continuous bracing. Usually, the check of this type of instability is complex and leads to sophisticated and tedious computations. In order to avoid this inconvenience, approached solutions are often used. One of the most frequently used consists in calculating the compressed member as being fictitiously separated, submitted to lateral buckling in an elastic medium. The stiffness of this fictitious member is taken equal to its stiffness in lateral bending. The present paper proposes an improved behaviour model of members submitted to lateral buckling through which the stiffness of the fictitious member is determined by taking into account the torsional stiffness of the whole transverse section of the profile

Microscopic laser-driven high-energy colliders

The concept of a laser-guided $e^+e^-$ collider in the high-energy regime is presented and its feasibility discussed. Ultra-intense laser pulses and strong static magnetic fields are employed to unite in one stage the electron and positron acceleration and their head-on-head collision. We show that the resulting coherent collisions in the GeV regime yield an enormous enhancement of the luminosity with regard to conventional incoherent colliders

A Non Linear Design Model for Continuous Multi-span Light Gauge Sheeting and Members

The calculation of profiled sheeting and members by using the post-critical stage in which a plastic hinge is originated at the internal support is possible provided that the relationships between the support moment, reaction and hinge rotation are known. There are two alternative procedures of testing for obtaining these data: double-span test or internal support test. In the second one, instead of a global behaviour, only the local relationships between the three above characteristics are determined. When calculating with the model proposed in Eurocode 3, Part 1.3, the above two different test procedures do not lead to close enough results. The present paper is aimed at both explaining the reasons of these differences and proposing consequently an improved approach to the behaviour at the internal support

Derivation of the time dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equation in two dimensions

We present microscopic derivations of the defocusing two-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the Gross–Pitaevskii equation starting froman interacting N-particle system of bosons. We consider the interaction potential to be given either by Wβ(x)=N−1+2βW(Nβx), for any β>0, or to be given by VN(x)=e2NV(eNx), for some spherical symmetric, nonnegative and compactly supported W,V∈L∞(R2,R). In both cases we prove the convergence of the reduced density corresponding to the exact time evolution to the projector onto the solution of the corresponding nonlinear Schrödinger equation in trace norm. For the latter potential VN we show that it is crucial to take the microscopic structure of the condensate into account in order to obtain the correct dynamics

Derivation of the time dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equation in two dimensions

We present microscopic derivations of the defocusing two-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the Gross–Pitaevskii equation starting froman interacting N-particle system of bosons. We consider the interaction potential to be given either by Wβ(x)=N−1+2βW(Nβx), for any β>0, or to be given by VN(x)=e2NV(eNx), for some spherical symmetric, nonnegative and compactly supported W,V∈L∞(R2,R). In both cases we prove the convergence of the reduced density corresponding to the exact time evolution to the projector onto the solution of the corresponding nonlinear Schrödinger equation in trace norm. For the latter potential VN we show that it is crucial to take the microscopic structure of the condensate into account in order to obtain the correct dynamics

Individualized Frequency Importance Functions for Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The Speech Intelligibility Index includes a series of frequency importance functions for calculating the estimated intelligibility of speech under various conditions. Until recently, techniques to derive frequency importance required averaging data over a group of listeners, thus hindering the ability to observe individual differences due to factors such as hearing loss. In the current study, the “random combination strategy” [Bosen and Chatterjee (2016). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 3718–3727] was used to derive frequency importance functions for individual hearing-impaired listeners, and normal-hearing participants for comparison. Functions were measured by filtering sentences to contain only random subsets of frequency bands on each trial, and regressing speech recognition against the presence or absence of bands across trials. Results show that the contribution of each band to speech recognition was inversely proportional to audiometric threshold in that frequency region, likely due to reduced audibility, even though stimuli were shaped to compensate for each individual\u27s hearing loss. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that this method is sensitive to factors that alter the shape of frequency importance functions within individuals with hearing loss, which could be used to characterize the impact of audibility or other factors related to suprathreshold deficits or hearing aid processing strategies

University of Vermont Community Tobacco Use and Attitudes Survey

Introduction: Smoking remains an important public health issue in U.S. Colleges. 17.3% of U.S. smokers are 18-24 years old. 28% of U.S. college students began smoking at age 19 or older. Currently 1,104 U.S. Colleges have adopted Tobacco-Free policies.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1216/thumbnail.jp

Derivation of the Landau–Pekar equations in a many-body mean-field limit

We consider the Fröhlich Hamiltonian in a mean-field limit where many bosonic particles weakly couple to the quantized phonon field. For large particle numbers and a suitably small coupling, we show that the dynamics of the system is approximately described by the Landau–Pekar equations. These describe a Bose–Einstein condensate interacting with a classical polarization field, whose dynamics is effected by the condensate, i.e., the back-reaction of the phonons that are created by the particles during the time evolution is of leading order