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Distribution by Scientific Domains
Engineering40%

Selected Abstracts

Neural Signal Manager: a collection of classical and innovative tools for multi-channel spike train analysis

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Issue 11 2009
Antonio Novellino
Abstract Recent developments in the neuroengineering field and the widespread use of the micro electrode arrays (MEAs) for electrophysiological investigations made available new approaches for studying the dynamics of dissociated neuronal networks as well as acute/organotypic slices maintained ex vivo. Importantly, the extraction of relevant parameters from these neural populations is likely to involve long-term measurements, lasting from a few hours to entire days. The processing of huge amounts of electrophysiological data, in terms of computational time and automation of the procedures, is actually one of the major bottlenecks for both in vivo and in vitro recordings. In this paper we present a collection of algorithms implemented within a new software package, named the Neural Signal Manager (NSM), aimed at analyzing a huge quantity of data recorded by means of MEAs in a fast and efficient way. The NSM offers different approaches for both spike and burst analysis, and integrates state-of-the-art statistical algorithms, such as the inter-spike interval histogram or the post stimulus time histogram, with some recent ones, such as the burst detection and its related statistics. In order to show the potentialities of the software, the application of the developed algorithms to a set of spontaneous activity recordings from dissociated cultures at different ages is presented in the Results section. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Market interdependence and financial volatility transmission in East Asia

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2009
Giampiero M. Gallo
Abstract In this paper, we adapt the Multiplicative Error Model (MEM) to analyze the interdependence of volatility across markets. The MEM specifies the dynamics of a volatility proxy (absolute returns) for one market including terms accounting for an asymmetric impact of good or bad news on the market, and possible volatility spillover terms from other markets. The specific empirical focus of the paper is on the interdependence structure of seven East Asian markets between 1990 and 2005. We pay specific attention to the stability of the significance of the links across markets on subperiods that consider or exclude the 1997 crisis and contrast results between earlier samples and more recent ones. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Basics and applications of solid-state kinetics: A pharmaceutical perspective,

JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2006
Ammar Khawam
Abstract Most solid-state kinetic principles were derived from those for homogenous phases in the past century. Rate laws describing solid-state degradation are more complex than those in homogenous phases. Solid-state kinetic reactions can be mechanistically classified as nucleation, geometrical contraction, diffusion, and reaction order models. Experimentally, solid-state kinetics is studied either isothermally or nonisothermally. Many mathematical methods have been developed to interpret experimental data for both heating protocols. These methods generally fall into one of two categories: model-fitting and model-free. Controversies have arisen with regard to interpreting solid-state kinetic results, which include variable activation energy, calculation methods, and kinetic compensation effects. Solid-state kinetic studies have appeared in the pharmaceutical literature over many years; some of the more recent ones are discussed in this review. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 95:472,498, 2006 [source]

Electronic properties and phase transitions in Si, ZnSe, and GaAs under pressure cycling up to 20,30 GPa in a high-pressure cell

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 3 2009
Sergey V. Ovsyannikov
Abstract An automated high-pressure setup employing anvil-type cells is applied for investigation of phase transitions and elec- tronic properties (the thermoelectric power (Seebeck effect), the electrical resistivity) of silicon, zinc selenide and gal lium arsenide under pressure cycling within the range of 0,20(30) GPa. The "correlation" dependencies of a pressure value of the semiconductor,metal transition in Czochralski-grown silicon (Cz-Si) on the concentrations of both carriers and residual interstitial oxygen are discussed. In all Si samples a decompression of the high-pressure metal phase produces the semimetal p-type phases: the rhombohedral r8 (Si-XII) and the body-centred cubic bc8 (Si-III) lattices. Re- pressurization cycles reveal two features in the semimetal phase, near 2 GPa and 5 GPa. The transitions into the metal phase at higher pressure resemble those in pristine silicon. For ZnSe and GaAs, it is found that decompression from the high-pressure phases (NaCl and Cmcm, respectively) can follow different paths, producing the zincblende, the cinnabar and the wurtzite lattices. Advantages of the characterization method are discussed, in comparison with both the traditional techniques (X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscropy, etc.) and the more recent ones (such as nanoindentation). (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]

Weisz + Yoes (WXY architecture + urban design)

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Issue 3 2009
Jayne Merkel
Abstract Few small avant-garde practices have an impact on visitors to New York like that of WXY, as the firm is sometimes called. Theirs is particularly surprising since, as Jayne Merkel notes, they have only completed a handful of freestanding buildings. But this mid-career husband-and-wife team of Claire Weisz and Mark Yoes - and their new partner, Layng Pew, whom they met at Yale 20 years ago - are changing the face of Times Square and redesigning historic Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan where ferries leave for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These heavily used public places are only the most recent ones that they have inventively improved over the last decade and a half. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]