COLOPHON 2013

International audienceIn 2010 the Mimar Sinan University of Istanbul started a research project on the Ionian town of Colophon which is conducted in close collaboration with the University of Vienna [1]. It aims at the exploration of the ancient urban area as well as on the distribution of the necropoleis. For the campaign of the year 2013 the Austrian research team concentrated on the following topics [2]. 1. Survey in the area of the ancient city This year, the main focus of the investigations in the area within the fortification walls was laid on the exploration of the urbanistic organisation of the city by magnetic survey and by ground penetrating radar. For this purpose two areas were chosen. The first area consisted of fields in the plain between the brooks Kabaklidere and Kurudere in the north eastern quarters of the ancient city. Here the existence of houses has been proven by excavations by the museum of Izmir about 10–15 years ago. The remains of walls were also visible in several trenches opened by illegal diggers both on the plains and in the forested area near the slopes of the surrounding hills. The geophysical prospection confirmed the assumed existence of several buildings and streets in the area. In addition we conducted an extensive survey in adjacent fields and collected pottery from the holes dug by illegal diggers. The finds included roof tiles and a small amount of pottery with a chronological range from the 6 th to the 4 th c. BC. A detailed documentation of the present land-use and land-division of this area, already begun in 2012, was continued with the aim of a diachronical understanding of the landscape's historical development. This included the description of modern features in the fields as well as interviews with owners and tenants. The second area chosen for a geophysical prospection is situated to the south of the Halil Ağa Tepesi, where W. Höpfner proposed to locate the ancient agora [3]. Both magnetic survey and ground penetrating radar prospections were carried out here. Further examination of the data is currently being carried out. The exemplary geophysical prospection will give important insights into the organisation and layou

Interactional Structure Applied to the Identification and Generation of Visual Interactive Behavior: Robots that (Usually) Follow the Rules

Peer reviewe

Electrophysiological effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine on isolated human atrial myocytes, and the influence of chronic beta-adrenoceptor blockade

<b>1.</b> 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) has been postulated to play a proarrhythmic role in the human atria via stimulation of 5-HT<sub>4</sub> receptors. <b>2.</b> The aims of this study were to examine the effects of 5-HT on the L-type Ca<sup>2+</sup> current (<i>I</i><sub>CaL</sub>) action potential duration (APD), the effective refractory period (ERP) and arrhythmic activity in human atrial cells, and to assess the effects of prior treatment with β-adrenoceptor antagonists. <b>3.</b> Isolated myocytes, from the right atrial appendage of 27 consenting patients undergoing cardiac surgery who were in sinus rhythm, were studied using the whole-cell perforated patch-clamp technique at 37ºC. <b>4.</b> 5-HT (1 n-10 μM) caused a concentration-dependent increase in <i>I</i><sub>CaL</sub>, which was potentiated in cells from β-blocked (maximum response to 5-HT, E<sub>max</sub>=299±12% increase above control) compared to non-β-blocked patients (E<sub>max</sub>=220±6%, P<0.05), but with no change in either the potency (log EC<sub>50</sub>: -7.09±0.07 vs -7.26±0.06) or Hill coefficient (<i>n</i><sub>H</sub>: 1.5±0.6 vs 1.5±0.3) of the 5-HT concentration-response curve. <b>5.</b> 5-HT (10 μM) produced a greater increase in the APD at 50% repolarisation (APD50) in cells from β-blocked patients (of 37±10 ms, i.e. 589±197%) vs non-β-blocked patients (of 10±4 ms, i.e. 157±54%; P<0.05). Both the APD<sub>90</sub> and the ERP were unaffected by 5-HT. <b>6.</b> Arrhythmic activity was observed in response to 5-HT in five of 17 cells (29%) studied from β-blocked, compared to zero of 16 cells from the non-β-blocked patients (P<0.05). <b>7.</b> In summary, the 5-HT-induced increase in calcium current was associated with a prolonged early plateau phase of repolarisation, but not late repolarisation or refractoriness, and the enhancement of these effects by chronic β-adrenoceptor blockade was associated with arrhythmic potential

COLOPHON 2013

International audienceIn 2010 the Mimar Sinan University of Istanbul started a research project on the Ionian town of Colophon which is conducted in close collaboration with the University of Vienna [1]. It aims at the exploration of the ancient urban area as well as on the distribution of the necropoleis. For the campaign of the year 2013 the Austrian research team concentrated on the following topics [2]. 1. Survey in the area of the ancient city This year, the main focus of the investigations in the area within the fortification walls was laid on the exploration of the urbanistic organisation of the city by magnetic survey and by ground penetrating radar. For this purpose two areas were chosen. The first area consisted of fields in the plain between the brooks Kabaklidere and Kurudere in the north eastern quarters of the ancient city. Here the existence of houses has been proven by excavations by the museum of Izmir about 10–15 years ago. The remains of walls were also visible in several trenches opened by illegal diggers both on the plains and in the forested area near the slopes of the surrounding hills. The geophysical prospection confirmed the assumed existence of several buildings and streets in the area. In addition we conducted an extensive survey in adjacent fields and collected pottery from the holes dug by illegal diggers. The finds included roof tiles and a small amount of pottery with a chronological range from the 6 th to the 4 th c. BC. A detailed documentation of the present land-use and land-division of this area, already begun in 2012, was continued with the aim of a diachronical understanding of the landscape's historical development. This included the description of modern features in the fields as well as interviews with owners and tenants. The second area chosen for a geophysical prospection is situated to the south of the Halil Ağa Tepesi, where W. Höpfner proposed to locate the ancient agora [3]. Both magnetic survey and ground penetrating radar prospections were carried out here. Further examination of the data is currently being carried out. The exemplary geophysical prospection will give important insights into the organisation and layou

Severity of Depression Predicts Remission Rates Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Background: Multiple factors likely impact response and remission rates in the treatment of depression with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Notably the role of symptom severity in outcomes with rTMS is poorly understood.Objective/Hypothesis: This study investigated the predictors of achieving remission in patients suffering from depression who receive ≥3 rTMS treatments per week. Methods: Available data on 41 patients treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2009 to 2014 were included for analysis. Patients received a range of pulse sequences from 3,000 to 5,000 with left sided or bilateral coil placement. Primary outcome measures were total score on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) or the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology—Self Rated (QIDS-SR). Remission was defined as a total score less than five, and response was defined as a 50% decrease in the total score on both outcome metrics. Outcomes in patients diagnosed as suffering from mild or moderate depression were compared to those suffering from severe depression. Results: Of the 41 patients receiving treatment, 16 reached remission by the end of treatment. Remission rate was associated with the initial severity of depression, with patients with mild or moderate depression reaching remission at a significantly higher rate than those with severe depression. Total number of rTMS sessions or length of treatment were not predictors of remission. Conclusion: Patients with a baseline level of depression characterized as mild or moderate had significantly better outcomes following rTMS compared to patients with severe depression

The analysis of facial beauty: an emerging area of research in pattern analysis

Much research presented recently supports the idea that the human perception of attractiveness is data-driven and largely irrespective of the perceiver. This suggests using pattern analysis techniques for beauty analysis. Several scientific papers on this subject are appearing in image processing, computer vision and pattern analysis contexts, or use techniques of these areas. In this paper, we will survey the recent studies on automatic analysis of facial beauty, and discuss research lines and practical application

Physics of Ultra-Peripheral Nuclear Collisions

Moving highly-charged ions carry strong electromagnetic fields that act as a field of photons. In collisions at large impact parameters, hadronic interactions are not possible, and the ions interact through photon-ion and photon-photon collisions known as {\it ultra-peripheral collisions} (UPC). Hadron colliders like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce photonuclear and two-photon interactions at luminosities and energies beyond that accessible elsewhere; the LHC will reach a $\gamma p$ energy ten times that of the Hadron-Electron Ring Accelerator (HERA). Reactions as diverse as the production of anti-hydrogen, photoproduction of the $\rho^0$, transmutation of lead into bismuth and excitation of collective nuclear resonances have already been studied. At the LHC, UPCs can study many types of `new physics.'Comment: 47 pages, to appear in Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Scienc

Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits

Photoproduction off Nuclei and Point-like Photon Interactions Part I: Cross Sections and Nuclear Shadowing

High energy photoproduction off nuclear targets is studied within the Glauber-Gribov approximation. The photon is assumed to interact as a $q\bar{q}$-system according to the Generalized Vector Dominance Model and as a ``bare photon'' in direct scattering processes with target nucleons. We calculate total cross sections for interactions of photons with nuclei taking into account coherence length effects and point-like interactions of the photon. Results are compared to data on photon-nucleus cross sections, nuclear shadowing, and quasi- elastic $\rho$-production. Extrapolations of cross sections and of the shadowing behaviour to high energies are given.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

First Observation of PP-odd γ\gamma Asymmetry in Polarized Neutron Capture on Hydrogen

We report the first observation of the parity-violating 2.2 MeV gamma-ray asymmetry $A^{np}_\gamma$ in neutron-proton capture using polarized cold neutrons incident on a liquid parahydrogen target at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. $A^{np}_\gamma$ isolates the $\Delta I=1$, \mbox{$^{3}S_{1}\rightarrow {^{3}P_{1}}$} component of the weak nucleon-nucleon interaction, which is dominated by pion exchange and can be directly related to a single coupling constant in either the DDH meson exchange model or pionless EFT. We measured $A^{np}_\gamma = [-3.0 \pm 1.4 (stat) \pm 0.2 (sys)]\times 10^{-8}$, which implies a DDH weak $\pi NN$ coupling of $h_{\pi}^{1} = [2.6 \pm 1.2(stat) \pm 0.2(sys)] \times 10^{-7}$ and a pionless EFT constant of $C^{^{3}S_{1}\rightarrow ^{3}P_{1}}/C_{0}=[-7.4 \pm 3.5 (stat) \pm 0.5 (sys)] \times 10^{-11}$ MeV$^{-1}$. We describe the experiment, data analysis, systematic uncertainties, and the implications of the result.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure