scholarly journals Information processing in miniature brains

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1707) ◽  
pp. 885-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Chittka ◽  
P. Skorupski
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Face ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Sheer Size ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Since a comprehensive understanding of brain function and evolution in vertebrates is often hobbled by the sheer size of the nervous system, as well as ethical concerns, major research efforts have been made to understand the neural circuitry underpinning behaviour and cognition in invertebrates, and its costs and benefits under natural conditions. This special feature of Proceedings of the Royal Society B contains an idiosyncratic range of current research perspectives on neural underpinnings and adaptive benefits (and costs) of such diverse phenomena as spatial memory, colour vision, attention, spontaneous behaviour initiation, memory dynamics, relational rule learning and sleep, in a range of animals from marine invertebrates with exquisitely simple nervous systems to social insects forming societies with many thousands of individuals working together as a ‘superorganism’. This introduction provides context and history to tie the various approaches together, and concludes that there is an urgent need to understand the full neuron-to-neuron circuitry underlying various forms of information processing—not just to explore brain function comprehensively, but also to understand how (and how easily) cognitive capacities might evolve in the face of pertinent selection pressures. In the invertebrates, reaching these goals is becoming increasingly realistic.

scholarly journals Dogs recognize dog and human emotions

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 20150883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Albuquerque ◽  
Kun Guo ◽  
Anna Wilkinson ◽  
Carine Savalli ◽  
Emma Otta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
High Level

The perception of emotional expressions allows animals to evaluate the social intentions and motivations of each other. This usually takes place within species; however, in the case of domestic dogs, it might be advantageous to recognize the emotions of humans as well as other dogs. In this sense, the combination of visual and auditory cues to categorize others' emotions facilitates the information processing and indicates high-level cognitive representations. Using a cross-modal preferential looking paradigm, we presented dogs with either human or dog faces with different emotional valences (happy/playful versus angry/aggressive) paired with a single vocalization from the same individual with either a positive or negative valence or Brownian noise. Dogs looked significantly longer at the face whose expression was congruent to the valence of vocalization, for both conspecifics and heterospecifics, an ability previously known only in humans. These results demonstrate that dogs can extract and integrate bimodal sensory emotional information, and discriminate between positive and negative emotions from both humans and dogs.

Endophenotypes and Diagnostic Categories: Event-related Potentials and the Schizophrenia-bipolar Dichotomy

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
J. Maltez ◽  
D. Dias ◽  
H. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Biologic Markers ◽  
Related Potentials

After decades of neuroscientific research and taxonomic endeavour in psychiatry the quest for biologic markers specific enough to accommodate nosologic categories has not succeeded. Yet, neurophysiology and neuroimaging have developed pwoerful tools to investigate brain function. An immense amount of data has been accumulated regarding normal and pathologic information processing, cognition, emotion and other domains. Some have been correlated with genes underpinning diseases and are candidate endophenotypes. These stand at an intermediate level between genes and phenotype. They encompass several kinds of dysfunctions or abnormalities in brain structure. Rather than matching to singular diagnostic categories, as we devise them today, the same endophenotype is usually shared by distinct pathologic entities. Assuming tha they reflect specif dysfunctions this raises critical questions regarding the DSM way of classifying mental disorders and to the understanding of the neurobiologic phenomena underlying them. It is the purpose of this presentation to discuss these questions and review some of the data, including our own, concerning event-related potentials endophenotypes of psychosis with special focus on the schizophrenia-bipolar dichotomy and present.

scholarly journals How Cooperative Engagement Programs Strengthen Sequencing Capabilities for Biosurveillance and Outbreak Response

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W. Bartlow ◽  
Earl A. Middlebrook ◽  
Alicia T. Romero ◽  
Jeanne M. Fair
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Health Security ◽  
The Face ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Etiological Agents

The threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases continues to be a challenge to public and global health security. Cooperative biological engagement programs act to build partnerships and collaborations between scientists and health professionals to strengthen capabilities in biosurveillance. Biosurveillance is the systematic process of detecting, reporting, and responding to especially dangerous pathogens and pathogens of pandemic potential before they become outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. One important tool in biosurveillance is next generation sequencing. Expensive sequencing machines, reagents, and supplies make it difficult for countries to adopt this technology. Cooperative engagement programs help by providing funding for technical assistance to strengthen sequencing capabilities. Through workshops and training, countries are able to learn sequencing and bioinformatics, and implement these tools in their biosurveillance programs. Cooperative programs have an important role in building and sustaining collaborations among institutions and countries. One of the most important pieces in fostering these collaborations is trust. Trust provides the confidence that a successful collaboration will benefit all parties involved. With sequencing, this enables the sharing of pathogen samples and sequences. Obtaining global sequencing data helps to identify unknown etiological agents, track pathogen evolution and infer transmission networks throughout the duration of a pandemic. Having sequencing technology in place for biosurveillance generates the capacity to provide real-time data to understand and respond to pandemics. We highlight the need for these programs to continue to strengthen sequencing in biosurveillance. By working together to strengthen sequencing capabilities, trust can be formed, benefitting global health in the face of biological threats.

scholarly journals Positioning and Rebranding as a State Security Tools in Global Space

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-117
Author(s):  
Ihor Ishchenko ◽  
Olena Bashkeieva
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political System ◽  
State Security ◽  
Political Risks ◽  
Global Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Unstable Environment ◽  
Mental Construct ◽  
Benefits And Costs

The purpose of this article is to explore positioning and rebranding as tools for state security in global space, using the methodology of constructivism in international relations. The author hypothesizes that positioning the country as safe will be attractive only if there is a unifying factor based on the principles of consocial democracy. To achieve this purpose, the authors used several scientific approaches and methods: constructivism as a scientific paradigm; dialectical method; content analysis, and comparison. The article covers the following issues: Positioning and rebranding in modern conditions; Level of branding effectiveness in Ukraine; National identity as the basis for rebranding and state security; Rebranding states in the face of new challenges and threats. The essence of the conclusions is as follows: States will choose a partner for economic cooperation under difficult conditions in terms of political risks, benefits, and costs. This trend is about renewed positioning and rebranding to facilitate decisions on cooperation. The effectiveness of the existing state brand depends not only on creating an attractive external picture of the country’s positioning. Without a genuine alignment of the declared brand with the internal situation of the state, the political system as a whole, the congruent of the mental construct of the main political structures and the social environment, the brand will not be attractive to investors and the country will remain in an unstable environment.

scholarly journals Digital DICOM in Dentistry

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 330-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Digital Systems ◽  
Dental Practice ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Reliable Transmission ◽  
X Ray Imaging ◽  
Transmission Of Information ◽  
The Face

Similar to Medicine, digital communication, information processing, and x-ray imaging have changed the face of dentistry. The incorporation of digital systems into medical and dental practice has necessitated development of a standard that allows reliable transmission of information between the devices taking the images, devices storing the images, and devices displaying the images. This standard is termed as DICOM. The following article briefly reviews how DICOM came about, how dentistry is involved, the various elements that are part of the DICOM system, and how DICOM is currently used in dentistry.

A timeline for the acquisition of symbolic cognition in the human lineage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Tattersall
Keyword(s):  
Brain Function ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Skeletal Structure ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Symbolic Cognition ◽  
The World ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Fossil Records ◽  
Mental Symbols

Human beings are symbolic in the sense that they—uniquely—partition the world into a vocabulary of mental symbols that can be recombined to make statements not only about things as they are, but as they might be. An appraisal of the archaeological and fossil records shows that this unusual way of manipulating information was a recent acquisition, and one that occurred within the tenure of Homo sapiens on the planet. Almost certainly, the necessary neural underpinnings were exaptively acquired along with the distinctive skeletal structure of Homo sapiens, although the new potential was only subsequently released by a necessarily cultural stimulus. This stimulus was most likely the spontaneous and sudden invention of language, the quintessential symbolic activity. That the algorithmic change in brain function involved was more frugal metabolically than its intuitive predecessor is strongly supported by the observed 12.7 percent diminution in average human brain volumes since the late Pleistocene.

scholarly journals Entropy and the Brain: An Overview

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soheil Keshmiri
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Fundamental Property ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Information Processing Capacity ◽  
Ageing Brain ◽  
The Brain

Entropy is a powerful tool for quantification of the brain function and its information processing capacity. This is evident in its broad domain of applications that range from functional interactivity between the brain regions to quantification of the state of consciousness. A number of previous reviews summarized the use of entropic measures in neuroscience. However, these studies either focused on the overall use of nonlinear analytical methodologies for quantification of the brain activity or their contents pertained to a particular area of neuroscientific research. The present study aims at complementing these previous reviews in two ways. First, by covering the literature that specifically makes use of entropy for studying the brain function. Second, by highlighting the three fields of research in which the use of entropy has yielded highly promising results: the (altered) state of consciousness, the ageing brain, and the quantification of the brain networks’ information processing. In so doing, the present overview identifies that the use of entropic measures for the study of consciousness and its (altered) states led the field to substantially advance the previous findings. Moreover, it realizes that the use of these measures for the study of the ageing brain resulted in significant insights on various ways that the process of ageing may affect the dynamics and information processing capacity of the brain. It further reveals that their utilization for analysis of the brain regional interactivity formed a bridge between the previous two research areas, thereby providing further evidence in support of their results. It concludes by highlighting some potential considerations that may help future research to refine the use of entropic measures for the study of brain complexity and its function. The present study helps realize that (despite their seemingly differing lines of inquiry) the study of consciousness, the ageing brain, and the brain networks’ information processing are highly interrelated. Specifically, it identifies that the complexity, as quantified by entropy, is a fundamental property of conscious experience, which also plays a vital role in the brain’s capacity for adaptation and therefore whose loss by ageing constitutes a basis for diseases and disorders. Interestingly, these two perspectives neatly come together through the association of entropy and the brain capacity for information processing.

Capability development in startup and mature enterprises

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjia Ma ◽  
Chunting Lang ◽  
Qing Sun ◽  
Deeksha Singh
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Entrepreneurial Firms ◽  
Capability Development ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Face

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to review the literature of enterprise capability, which comprises the three dimensions of operational, dynamic and improvisational capabilities, and analyze their differences. Through this review, the authors aim to enrich the enterprise capability theory and provide some directions for entrepreneurial practice in the face of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA).Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a systematic review of the literature on enterprise capability as it relates to entrepreneurial firms, following the content analysis approach as described in Gaur and Kumar (2018).FindingsThe authors’ conceptual model compares the capability levels of startups and mature enterprises and presents a model for the dynamic evolution of the capability levels of enterprises. In doing so, this study enriches the enterprise capability theory and lays the theoretical foundation for the follow-up empirical research. The authors also provide guidance for entrepreneurial practice in the face of VUCA.Originality/valueIn recent years, scholars have begun to explore the issue of enterprise capability in the field of entrepreneurship. However, because of different research perspectives, one lacks clarity on the concept and dimensions of enterprise capability. The capability theory is relatively weak in guiding the practice of enterprises; enterprises lack effective response strategies in a changing environment, and the failure rate of startups is high. This study aims to develop a deeper understanding of enterprise capability.

The Gorgon Project: bringing Australia's largest single resource development to life

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 691
Author(s):  
Craig May ◽  
Herb Jacklin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management System ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Injection ◽  
Construction Operations ◽  
Gas Processing ◽  
Efficient Construction ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Sheer Size ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
Gas Fields

The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is located off the northwest coast of Western Australia and encompasses a number of mega-projects including an all-subsea upstream development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, a greenfield gas processing facility including a 15MTPA liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and a 300TJ/d domestic gas plant, and the world’s largest commercial scale carbon dioxide injection project. Due to its sheer size, scale and complexity, in addition to a number of unique characteristics, the Gorgon Project has required an extraordinary level of project execution planning. One aspect is the processing plant’s location on Barrow Island—a remote Class A nature reserve. Core to the project’s planning and success is a meticulous and robust environmental management system designed to protect Barrow Island’s unique flora and fauna. This includes stringent environmental measures such as limits on worker population and movement, quarantine requirements for all personnel, and materials and work adjustments for seasonal flora and fauna life cycles. The project’s scope of work is also being executed from three centres: LNG facilities centered in London, infrastructure centered in Perth and construction operations centered in London, Perth and Barrow Island (according to the phase and priorities of the project). This paper explores the following factors: the remote location of the gas fields; cohabiting industry with Barrow Island; minimising environmental impacts using efficient construction management methods such as modularisation; and working together as one team across multiple locations and time zones to demonstrate how the extraordinary can be achieved.

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