Long-term modification of synaptic strength is one of the basic mechanisms of memory formation and activity-dependent refinement of neural circuits. This idea was purposed by Hebb to provide a basis for the formation of a cell assembly. Repetitive correlated activity of pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons can induce long-lasting synaptic strength modification, the direction and extent of whi...

We show that in the worst case, Q(nd) sidedness queries are required to determine whether a set of n points in Rd is affinely degenerate, i .e . , whether it contains d + 1 points on a common hyperplane. This matches known upper bounds. We give a straightforward adversary argument, based on the explicit construction of a point set containing Q(nd) “collapsible” simplices, any one of which can b...

cases. In the first case, our contribution consists of mapping the problem to the mincut problem. In the second case, our contributions is the fuzzy-logic approach. In addition to those two cases, we presented a PLA partitioning technique which considers not only the delay through each sub-PLA, but also the increased loading on the stage which is driving the sub-PLA's. The last method provides ...

arterial blood gas (abg) sampling is a painful procedure with no perfect technique for quelling the discomfort. an ideal local anesthesia should be rapid, easy to learn, inexpensive, and noninvasive. this study was aimed to compare pain levels from abg sampling performed with vapocoolant spray in comparison to placebo. we hypothesized that pretreatment with the vapocoolant would reduce the pain...

Background: Lactic acidosis in cardiac surgical patients is a manifestation of systemic inflammation and excess pro-inflammatory cytokine production. This investigation was designed to integrate basic concepts about lactate acidosis with a clinically used of serum lactate in patients under coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) by on pump method. Methods: From August to September 2012, 15 patie...

First, mathematical formulae faithfully describing the distributions of amino acids and codons and reproducing the degeneracies in the various known genetic codes, including the standard genetic code, are constructed, by hand. Second, we summarize another mathematical approach relying on the use of q-deformations to describe these same genetic codes, and add a new application not considered bef...

For hydrologic applications, terrain models should have few local minima, and drainage lines should coincide with edges. We show that triangulating a set of points with elevations such that the number of local minima of the resulting terrain is minimized is NP-hard for degenerate point sets. The same result applies when there are no degeneracies for higher-order Delaunay triangulations. Two heu...

We show that in the worst case, (n d) sidedness queries are required to determine whether a set of n points in IR d is aanely degenerate, i.e., whether it contains d + 1 points on a common hyperplane. This matches known upper bounds. We give a straightforward adversary argument, based on the explicit construction of a point set containing (n d) \collapsible" simplices, any one of which can be m...