The Listsize Capacity of the Gaussian Channel with Decoder Assistance

The listsize capacity is computed for the Gaussian channel with a helper that—cognizant of the channel-noise sequence but not of the transmitted message—provides the decoder with a rate-limited description of said sequence. This capacity is shown to equal the sum of the cutoff rate of the Gaussian channel without help and the rate of help. In particular, zero-rate help raises the listsize capacity from zero to the cutoff rate. This is achieved by having the helper provide the decoder with a sufficiently fine quantization of the normalized squared Euclidean norm of the noise sequence.

COVID-19 Spreading Dynamics with Vaccination – Allocation Strategy, Return to Normalcy and Vaccine Hesitancy

ABSTRACTIn this work we use mathematical modeling to analyse the dynamics of COVID-19 spread after a vaccination program is initiated. The model used is a delay differential equation developed earlier by our group. Basis of currently available data, our principal findings are as follows. (a) For fastest deceleration of the pandemic, people with high interaction rate such as grocers and airline cabin crew should be given priority in vaccine access. (b) Individuals who have been vaccinated may be selectively cleared to return to normal activities without significant risk of a resurgence in cases. (c) If an infection as well as a vaccine confers immunity for a duration τ0, then the pandemic can be eliminated by vaccinating people at a sufficiently high rate. Unless τ0 is very small, the cutoff rate required appears feasible to achieve in practice. (d) The presence of a substantial minority of vaccine-hesitant population might not amount to a significant threat or even an inconvenience to a vaccine-compliant majority population.

Behavioral training enhances cortical temporal processing in neonatally deafened juvenile cats

Deaf humans implanted with a cochlear prosthesis depend largely on temporal cues for speech recognition because spectral information processing is severely impaired. Training with a cochlear prosthesis is typically required before speech perception shows improvement, suggesting that relevant experience modifies temporal processing in the central auditory system. We tested this hypothesis in neonatally deafened cats by comparing temporal processing in the primary auditory cortex (AI) of cats that received only chronic passive intracochlear electric stimulation (ICES) with cats that were also trained with ICES to detect temporally challenging trains of electric pulses. After months of chronic passive stimulation and several weeks of detection training in behaviorally trained cats, multineuronal AI responses evoked by temporally modulated ICES were recorded in anesthetized animals. The stimulus repetition rates that produced the maximum number of phase-locked spikes (best repetition rate) and 50% cutoff rate were significantly higher in behaviorally trained cats than the corresponding rates in cats that received only chronic passive ICES. Behavioral training restored neuronal temporal following ability to levels comparable with those recorded in naïve prior normal-hearing adult deafened animals. Importantly, best repetitition rates and cutoff rates were highest for neuronal clusters activated by the electrode configuration used in behavioral training. These results suggest that neuroplasticity in the AI is induced by behavioral training and perceptual learning in animals deprived of ordinary auditory experience during development and indicate that behavioral training can ameliorate or restore temporal processing in the AI of profoundly deaf animals.