A comparison of models of the isometric force of locust skeletal muscle in response to pulse train inputs

Muscle models are an important tool in the development of new rehabilitation and diagnostic techniques. Many models have been proposed in the past, but little work has been done on comparing the performance of models. In this paper, seven models that describe the isometric force response to pulse train inputs are investigated. Five of the models are from the literature while two new models are also presented. Models are compared in terms of their ability to fit to isometric force data, using Akaike’s and Bayesian information criteria and by examining the ability of each model to describe the underlying behaviour in response to individual pulses. Experimental data were collected by stimulating the locust extensor tibia muscle and measuring the force generated at the tibia. Parameters in each model were estimated by minimising the error between the modelled and actual force response for a set of training data. A separate set of test data, which included physiological kick-type data, was used to assess the models. It was found that a linear model performed the worst whereas a new model was found to perform the best. The parameter sensitivity of this new model was investigated using a one-at-a-time approach, and it found that the force response is not particularly sensitive to changes in any parameter.     

Nonlinear electromagnetic pulse with a superwide frequency bandwidth

A nonlinear equation is derived and its analytic solution describing a soliton-like perturbation propagating at velocity close to the speed of light is found. It is shown that the rate at which the amplitude of a soliton excited by a cold electron beam in a magnetized plasma-filled waveguide grows is proportional to (n _b/n ₀)^1/3, as is the linear growth rate of the beam-plasma instability.     

Mathematical models of cochlear nucleus onset neurons: I. Point neuron with many weak synaptic inputs

The cochlear nucleus (CN) presents a unique opportunity for quantitatively studying input-output transformations by neurons because it gives rise to a variety of different response types from a relatively homogeneous input source, the auditory nerve (AN). Particularly interesting among CN neurons are Onset (On) neurons, which have a prominent response to the onset of sustained sounds followed by little or no response in the steady-state. On neurons contrast sharply with their AN inputs, which respond vigorously throughout stimuli. On neurons can entrain to stimuli (firing once per cycle of a periodic stimulus) at up to 1000 Hz, unlike their AN inputs. To understand the mechanisms underlying these response patterns, we tested whether an integrate-to-threshold point-neuron model with a fixed refractory period can account for On discharge patterns for tones, systematically examining the effect of membrane time constant and the number and strength of the exclusively excitatory AN synaptic inputs. To produce both onset responses to high-frequency tone bursts and entrainment to a broad range of low-frequency tones, the model must have a short time constant (0.125 ms) and a large number (>100) of weak synaptic inputs, properties that are consistent with the electrical properties and anatomy of On-responding cells. With these parameters, the model acts like a coincidence detector with a threshold-like relationship between the instantaneous discharge rates of the output and the inputs. Onset responses to high-frequency tone bursts result because the threshold effect enhances the initial response of the AN inputs and suppresses their relatively lower sustained response. However, when the model entrains across a broad range of frequencies, it also produces short interspike intervals at the onset of high-frequency tone bursts, a response pattern not found in all types of On neurons. These results show a tradeoff, that may be a general property of many neurons, between following rapid stimulus fluctuations and responding without short interspike intervals at the onset of sustained stimuli.     

Nonlinear currents generated in plasma by a radiation pulse with a frequency exceeding the electron plasma frequency

It is shown that the nonlinear currents generated in plasma by a radiation pulse with a frequency exceeding the electron plasma frequency change substantially due to a reduction in the effective electron–ion collision frequency.     

急性缺血性卒中后阿司匹林联合缓释型双嘧达莫预防脑血管缺血事件的临床观察

目的：比较阿司匹林联合缓释型双嘧达莫和阿司匹林预防急性缺血性卒中后预防脑血管缺血事件的疗效。方法：60例发病48小时内急性缺血性卒患者随机分为联合组（n=30）和阿司匹林组（n=30）,分别采用联合应用阿司匹林和缓释型双嘧达莫（50mg,2次／d;双嘧达莫100mg,2次／d）和单独应用阿司匹林（50mg,2次／d）进行抗血小板治疗。随访6个月,比较2组脑血管缺血事件发生率和NIHSS评分降低值,并记录药物不良反应。结果：治疗组3例失访和1例终止实验,对照组5例失访,进入结果分析的例数为51例。联合组的患者6个月内脑血管缺血事件发生率明显低于单独应用阿司匹林组（11．5％VS．20．O％,P〈0．05）。而且,联合组NIHSS评分比单独应用阿司匹林降低更明显（4．52±1．8 vs．3．62±3.3,P〈0．05）。结论：联合应用阿司匹林和双嘧达莫在急性缺血性卒中后预防脑血管缺血事件的疗效明显优于单独应用阿司匹林。     

Tree size frequency distributions, plant density, age and community disturbance

We show that explicit mathematical and biological relationships exist among the scaling exponents and the allometric constants (α and β, respectively) of log–log linear tree‐community size frequency distributions, plant density N_T, and minimum, maximum and average stem diameters (D_min, D_max, and , respectively). As individuals grow in size and D_max increases, N_T is predicted to decrease as reflected by a decrease in the numerical value of α and an increase in the value of β. Our derivations further show that N_T decreases as increases even if D_min or D_max remain unchanged. Because D_max and the age of the largest individuals in a community are correlated, albeit weakly, we argue that the interdependent relationships among the numerical values of α, β, N_T, and shed light on the extent to which communities have experienced recent global disturbance. These predicted relationships receive strong statistical support using two large datasets spanning a broad spectrum of tree‐dominated communities.     

Combining frequency and time domain approaches to systems with multiple spike train input and output

A frequency domain approach and a time domain approach have been combined in an investigation of the behaviour of the primary and secondary endings of an isolated muscle spindle in response to the activity of two static fusimotor axons when the parent muscle is held at a fixed length and when it is subjected to random length changes. The frequency domain analysis has an associated error process which provides a measure of how well the input processes can be used to predict the output processes and is also used to specify how the interactions between the recorded processes contribute to this error. Without assuming stationarity of the input, the time domain approach uses a sequence of probability models of increasing complexity in which the number of input processes to the model is progressively increased. This feature of the time domain approach was used to identify a preferred direction of interaction between the processes underlying the generation of the activity of the primary and secondary endings. In the presence of fusimotor activity and dynamic length changes imposed on the muscle, it was shown that the activity of the primary and secondary endings carried different information about the effects of the inputs imposed on the muscle spindle. The results presented in this work emphasise that the analysis of the behaviour of complex systems benefits from a combination of frequency and time domain methods. This article is part of a special issue on Neuronal Dynamics of Sensory Coding.     

Regular pulse train transformation by the monosynaptic connection-neurophysiological data and their treating with simple stochastic neuron model

Firing pattern of neuronal activity evoked by regular stimulation of monosynaptic inputs to the neurons is described with simple stochastic neuron model. The model gives definite possibilities for an indirect evaluation of transformation in the real neurons which have to fit the following demands: 1) background activity was absent; 2) evoked activity was stationary within the wide range of stimulation frequencies; 3) spike occurrence times were within narrow limits in relation to the nearest stimuli. Experimental data obtained on three types of monosynaptic connections with different intensity of excitatory postsynaptic effects are compared with the model.     

Repetitively rated plasma relativistic microwave oscillator with a controllable frequency in every pulse

A repetitively rated microwave oscillator whose frequency can be varied electronically from pulse to pulse in a predetermined manner is created for the first time. The microwave oscillator has a power on the order of 10⁸ W and is based on the Cherenkov interaction of a high-current relativistic electron beam with a plasma preformed before each pulse. Electronic control over the plasma properties allows one to arbitrarily vary the microwave frequency from pulse to pulse at a pulse repetition rate of up to 50 Hz.     

Increasing frequency of bite wounds with increasing population density in Eurasian badgers, Meles meles

Eurasian badgers sometimes live in territorial, mixed-sex groups; the adaptive significance of this is not understood, but members generally interact amicably. None the less, badgers occasionally fight and inflict sometimes severe wounds on one another. Based on 498 badger life histories, from first emergence as a cub until death, documented during a 10-year trapping study at Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, U.K., the patterns and rates of bite wounding and consequential scarring were examined. Male badgers received more wounds and more severe wounds than did females. Wounding rates for both sexes increased significantly with age, and there was evidence that heavier individuals received most wounds. No seasonal pattern in wounding rates was apparent. During the study, the badger population size increased three-fold and wounding rates, particularly in males, showed a density-dependent increase. The rate of bite wounding increased with group size, and this increase was more marked among males than among females. Among males, but not females, the rate of bite wounding also increased with the number of badgers living in adjoining territories.     

Nitrogen addition,but not pulse frequency,shifts competitive interactions in favor of exotic invasive plant species

Biological Invasions - Temporally dynamic resource supplies may alter or lead to fluctuations in competitive outcomes. Resource pulses have been theorized to promote incursion by exotic species...     

Power density,field intensity,and carrier frequency determinants of RF-energy-lnduced calcium-ion efflux from brain tissue

To explain a carrier frequency dependence reported for radiofrequency (RF)-induced calcium-ion efflux from brain tissue, a chick-brain hemisphere bathed in buffer solution is modeled as a sphere within the uniform field of the incident electromagnetic wave. Calculations on a spherical model show that the average electric-field intensity within the sample remains the same at different carrier frequencies if the incident power density (P_i) is adjusted by an amount that compensates for the change in complex permittivity (?) and the change of wavelength, as a function of carrier frequency. The resulting formula for transforming P_i is seen to follow the pattern of both positive and negative demonstrations of calcium-ion efflux that have been observed at carrier frequencies of 50, 147, and 450 MHz. Indeed, all results obtained at these three frequencies, when related by P_i's that produce the same average electric-field intensity within the sample, are seen to be in agreement; no prediction is contradicted by an experiment.     

Food selection by chicks: Effects of colour,density and frequency of food types

Previous studies have shown that birds, including 3-day old chicks, show frequency-dependent selection when feeding on a food population made up of two types. Two experiments using 5-day old chicks are described here. In one, foods of three colours were presented in their three pairwise combinations, at five different relative frequencies. It was found that measures of selection were transitive: that is, selection of red versus yellow could be predicted from selection for red versus green and for green versus yellow. Selection was not frequency-dependent. In the second experiment, total food density, as well as relative frequency, was varied. Selection was density-dependent, being strongest at the middle one of the three densities. It was also irregularly frequency-dependent, being weaker at one (inter-mediate) frequency than at the other four, among which there was little variation.     

Dynamics of an ant-ant obligate mutualism: colony growth, density dependence and frequency dependence

In insect societies, worker vs. queen development (reproductive caste) is typically governed by environmental factors, but many Pogonomyrmex seed-harvester ants exhibit strict genetic caste determination, resulting in an obligate mutualism between two reproductively isolated lineages. Same-lineage matings produce fertile queens while alternate-lineage matings produce sterile workers. Because new virgin queens mate randomly with multiple males of each lineage type, and both worker and queen phenotypes are required for colony growth and future reproduction, fitness is influenced by the relative frequency of each lineage involved in the mutualistic breeding system. While models based solely on frequency-dependent selection predict the convergence of lineage frequencies towards equal (0.5/0.5), we surveyed the lineage ratios of 49 systems across the range of the mutualism and found that the global lineage frequency differed significantly from equal. Multiple regression analysis of our system survey data revealed that the density and relative frequency of one lineage decreases at lower elevations, while the frequency of the alternate lineage increases with total colony density. While the production of the first worker cohort is largely frequency dependent, relying on the random acquisition of worker-biased sperm stores, subsequent colony growth is independent of lineage frequency. We provide a simulation model showing that a net ecological advantage held by one lineage can lead to the maintenance of stable but asymmetric lineage frequencies. Collectively, these findings suggest that a combination of frequency-dependent and frequency-independent mechanisms can generate many different localized and independently evolving system equilibria.     

Zika virus NS1, a pathogenicity factor with many faces

Recent publications in The EMBO Journal (Xu et al, 2016 ) and in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (Brown et al, 2016 ) report crystal structures of the Zika virus (ZIKV) NS1 protein. The structures reveal unique surface properties that help explain the specificity of anti‐ZIKV NS1 antibodies. Possible functions of this multifaceted pathogenicity factor are discussed here on the basis of the structures and cautious extrapolation from other flaviviruses.     

Emission of low-frequency electromagnetic waves by a short laser pulse propagating in a plasma with density fluctuations

It is shown that a short laser pulse propagating in a plasma with electron density fluctuations can emit electromagnetic waves with frequencies much lower than the laser carrier frequency. Emissions with frequencies close to the plasma frequency and the doubled plasma frequency in a nonisothermal plasma, as well as emission generated in a turbulent plasma, are examined. The effects in question are related to the transformation of the laser pulse wakefield into electromagnetic radiation by electron density fluctuations. The phenomenon under study opens new possibilities for diagnostics of both plasma fields excited by laser pulses and electron density fluctuations in a plasma.