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Utilizing reactive DC magnetron sputtering method, TiN coatings were deposited on the silicon substrates at different nitrogen flows and powers. A study of the X-ray phase composition of the coatings was carried out. The stoichiometric composition of the coatings was determined using energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The structure of the surface, cross-section, and thickness of the coatings were determined using scanning electron (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A significant change in the surface structure of TiN coatings was established with changes in deposition power and nitrogen flow. SEM images of cross-sections of all coated samples showed that the formation of coatings occurs in the form of a columnar structure with a perpendicular orientation relative to the silicon substrate. The mechanical properties (elastic modulus E and microhardness H) of TiN coatings of the first group demonstrate a maximum at a nitrogen flow of 3 sccm and are 184 ± 11 GPa and 15.7 ± 1.3 GPa, respectively. In the second group, the values of E and H increase due to a decrease in the size of the structural elements of the coating (grains and crystallites). In the third group, E and H decrease. Microtribological tests were carried out in 4 stages: at a constant load, multi-cycle for 10 and 100 cycles, and with increasing load. The coefficient of friction (CoF) and specific volumetric wear ω depend on the roughness, topology, and mechanical properties of the resulting coatings. Fracture toughness was determined using nanoscratch and depends on the mechanical properties of TiN coatings. Within each group, coatings with the best mechanical and microtribological properties were described: in the first group—TiN coating at 3 sccm (with (29.6 ± 0.1) at.% N), in the second group—TiN coating at 2 sccm (with (40.8 ± 0.2) at.% N), and in the third group—TiN coating at 1 sccm (c (37.3 ± 0.2) at.% N). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flavin-binding fluorescent proteins are promising genetically encoded tags for microscopy. However, spectral properties of their chromophores (riboflavin, flavin mononucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide) are notoriously similar even between different protein families, which limits applications of flavoproteins in multicolor imaging. Here, we present a palette of 22 finely tuned fluorescent tags based on the thermostable LOV domain from Chloroflexus aggregans. We performed site saturation mutagenesis of three amino acid positions in the flavin-binding pocket, including the photoactive cysteine, to obtain variants with fluorescence emission maxima uniformly covering the wavelength range from 486 to 512 nm. We demonstrate three-color imaging based on spectral separation and two-color fluorescence lifetime imaging of bacteria, as well as two-color imaging of mammalian cells (HEK293T), using the proteins from the palette. These results highlight the possibility of fine spectral tuning of flavoproteins and pave the way for further applications of flavin-binding fluorescent proteins in fluorescence microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gestalt psychology has traditionally ignored the role of attention in perception, leading to the view that autonomous processes create perceptual configurations that are then attended. More recent research, however, has shown that spatial attention influences a form of Gestalt perception: the coherence of random-dot kinematograms (RDKs). Using ERPs, we investigated whether temporal expectations exert analogous attentional effects on the perception of coherence level in RDKs. Participants were presented fixed-length sequences of RDKs and reported the coherence level of a target RDK. The target was indicated immediately after its appearance by a postcue. Target expectancy increased as the sequence progressed until target presentation; afterward, remaining RDKs were perceived without target expectancy. Expectancy influenced the amplitudes of ERP components P1 and N2. Crucially, expectancy interacted with coherence level at N2, but not at P1. Specifically, P1 amplitudes decreased linearly as a function of RDK coherence irrespective of expectancy, whereas N2 exhibited a quadratic dependence on coherence: larger amplitudes for RDKs with intermediate coherence levels, and only when they were expected. These results suggest that expectancy at early processing stages is an unspecific, general readiness for perception. At later stages, expectancy becomes stimulus specific and nonlinearly related to Gestalt coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When freely viewing a scene, the eyes often return to previously visited locations. By tracking eye movements and coregistering eye movements and EEG, such refixations are shown to have multiple roles: repairing insufficient encoding from precursor fixations, supporting ongoing viewing by resampling relevant locations prioritized by precursor fixations, and aiding the construction of memory representations. All these functions of refixation behavior are understood to be underpinned by three oculomotor and cognitive systems and their associated brain structures. First, immediate saccade planning prior to refixations involves attentional selection of candidate locations to revisit. This process is likely supported by the dorsal attentional network. Second, visual working memory, involved in maintaining task-related information, is likely supported by the visual cortex. Third, higher-order relevance of scene locations, which depends on general knowledge and understanding of scene meaning, is likely supported by the hippocampal memory system. Working together, these structures bring about viewing behavior that balances exploring previously unvisited areas of a scene with exploiting visited areas through refixations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated visual working memory encoding across saccadic eye movements, focusing our analysis on refixation behavior. Over 10-s periods, participants performed a visual search for three, four, or five targets and remembered their orientations for a subsequent change-detection task. In 50% of the trials, one of the targets had its orientation changed. From the visual search period, we scored three types of refixations and applied measures for quantifying eye-fixation recurrence patterns. Repeated fixations on the same regions as well as repeated fixation patterns increased with memory load. Correct change detection was associated with more refixations on targets and less on distractors, with increased frequency of recurrence, and with longer intervals between refixations. The results are in accordance with the view that patterns of eye movement are an integral part of visual working memory representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In free viewing, the eyes return to previously visited locations rather frequently, even though the attentional and memory-related processes controlling eyemovement show a strong antirefixation bias. To overcome this bias, a special refixation triggering mechanism may have to be recruited. We probed the neural evidence for such a mechanism by combining eye tracking with EEG recording. A distinctive signal associated with refixation planning was observed in the EEG during the presaccadic interval: the presaccadic potential was reduced in amplitude before a refixation compared with normal fixations. The result offers direct evidence for a special refixation mechanism that operates in the saccade planning stage of eye movement control. Once the eyes have landed on the revisited location, acquisition of visual information proceeds indistinguishably from ordinary fixations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a group-theoretic analogue of the classic subset sum problem. It is known that every virtually nilpotent group has polynomial time decidable subset sum problem. In this paper we use subgroup distortion to show that every polycyclic non-virtually-nilpotent group has NP -complete subset sum problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In free visual exploration, eye-movement is immediately followed by dynamic reconfiguration of brain functional connectivity. We studied the task-dependency of this process in a combined visual search-change detection experiment. Participants viewed two (nearly) same displays in succession. First time they had to find and remember multiple targets among distractors, so the ongoing task involved memory encoding. Second time they had to determine if a target had changed in orientation, so the ongoing task involved memory retrieval. From multichannel EEG recorded during 200 ms intervals time-locked to fixation onsets, we estimated the functional connectivity using a weighted phase lag index at the frequencies of theta, alpha, and beta bands, and derived global and local measures of the functional connectivity graphs. We found differences between both memory task conditions for several network measures, such as mean path length, radius, diameter, closeness and eccentricity, mainly in the alpha band. Both the local and the global measures indicated that encoding involved a more segregated mode of operation than retrieval. These differences arose immediately after fixation onset and persisted for the entire duration of the lambda complex, an evoked potential commonly associated with early visual perception. We concluded that encoding and retrieval differentially shape network configurations involved in early visual perception, affecting the way the visual input is processed at each fixation. These findings demonstrate that task requirements dynamically control the functional connectivity networks involved in early visual perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Episodic memory builds up across eye movements to event elements. • Co-registered eye-tracking and EEG reveal the underlying neural mechanisms. • Deconvolution modeling corrected for the spurious effects of saccades on EEG. • Fixation-related theta and alpha activity predicts subsequent episodic memory performance. The brain systems of episodic memory and oculomotor control are tightly linked, suggesting a crucial role of eye movements in memory. But little is known about the neural mechanisms of memory formation across eye movements in unrestricted viewing behavior. Here, we leverage simultaneous eye tracking and EEG recording to examine episodic memory formation in free viewing. Participants memorized multi-element events while their EEG and eye movements were concurrently recorded. Each event comprised elements from three categories (face, object, place), with two exemplars from each category, in different locations on the screen. A subsequent associative memory test assessed participants' memory for the between-category associations that specified each event. We used a deconvolution approach to overcome the problem of overlapping EEG responses to sequential saccades in free viewing. Brain activity was time-locked to the fixation onsets, and we examined EEG power in the theta and alpha frequency bands, the putative oscillatory correlates of episodic encoding mechanisms. Three modulations of fixation-related EEG predicted high subsequent memory performance: (1) theta increase at fixations after between-category gaze transitions, (2) theta and alpha increase at fixations after within-element gaze transitions, (3) alpha decrease at fixations after between-exemplar gaze transitions. Thus, event encoding with unrestricted viewing behavior was characterized by three neural mechanisms, manifested in fixation-locked theta and alpha EEG activity that rapidly turned on and off during the unfolding eye movement sequences. These three distinct neural mechanisms may be the essential building blocks that subserve the buildup of coherent episodic memories during unrestricted viewing behavior. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-registration of EEG and eye movement has promise for investigating perceptual processes in free viewing conditions, provided certain methodological challenges can be addressed. Most of these arise from the self-paced character of eye movements in free viewing conditions. Successive eye movements occur within short time intervals. Their evoked activity is likely to distort the EEG signal during fixation. Due to the non-uniform distribution of fixation durations, these distortions are systematic, survive across-trials averaging, and can become a source of confounding. We illustrate this problem with effects of sequential eye movements on the evoked potentials and time-frequency components of EEG and propose a solution based on matching of eye movement characteristics between experimental conditions. The proposal leads to a discussion of which eye movement characteristics are to be matched, depending on the EEG activity of interest. We also compare segmentation of EEG into saccade-related epochs relative to saccade and fixation onsets and discuss the problem of baseline selection and its solution. Further recommendations are given for implementing EEG-eye movement co-registration in free viewing conditions. By resolving some of the methodological problems involved, we aim to facilitate the transition from the traditional stimulus-response paradigm to the study of visual perception in more naturalistic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work establishes a connection between canonical perturbation series in quantum mechanics and a Kato expansion for the resolvent of the Liouville superoperator. Our approach leads to an explicit expression for a generator of a block-diagonalizing Dyson's ordered exponential in arbitrary perturbation order. Unitary intertwining of perturbed and unperturbed averaging superprojectors allows for a description of ambiguities in the generator and block-diagonalized Hamiltonian. We compare the efficiency of the corresponding computational algorithm with the efficiencies of the Van Vleck and Magnus methods for high perturbative orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classic knapsack and related problems have natural generalizations to arbitrary (non-commutative) groups, collectively called knapsack-type problems in groups. We study the effect of free and direct products on their time complexity. We show that free products in certain sense preserve time complexity of knapsack-type problems, while direct products may amplify it. Our methods allow to obtain complexity results for rational subset membership problem in amalgamated free products over finite subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider several subgroup-related algorithmic questions in groups, modeled after the classic computational lattice problems, and study their computational complexity. We find polynomial time solutions to problems like finding a subgroup element closest to a given group element, or finding a shortest nontrivial element of a subgroup in the case of nilpotent groups, and a large class of surface groups and Coxeter groups. We also provide polynomial time algorithm to compute geodesics in given generators of a subgroup of a free group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally coherent patterns of phase can be obscured by analysis techniques that aggregate brain activity measures across-trials, whether prior to source localization or for estimating inter-areal coherence. We analyzed, at single-trial level, whole head MEG recorded during an observer-triggered apparent motion task. Episodes of globally coherent activity occurred in the delta, theta, alpha and beta bands of the signal in the form of large-scale waves, which propagated with a variety of velocities. Their mean speed at each frequency band was proportional to temporal frequency, giving a range of 0.06 to 4.0 m/s, from delta to beta. The wave peaks moved over the entire measurement array, during both ongoing activity and task-relevant intervals; direction of motion was more predictable during the latter. A large proportion of the cortical signal, measurable at the scalp, exists as large-scale coherent motion. We argue that the distribution of observable phase velocities in MEG is dominated by spatial filtering considerations in combination with group velocity of cortical activity. Traveling waves may index processes involved in global coordination of cortical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We generalize the classical knapsack and subset sum problems to arbitrary groups and study the computational complexity of these new problems. We show that these problems, as well as the bounded submonoid membership problem, are P-time decidable in hyperbolic groups and give various examples of finitely presented groups where the subset sum problem is NP-complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We generalize the classical Post correspondence problem (퐏퐂퐏 n) and its non-homogeneous variation (퐍퐏퐂퐏 n) to non-commutative groups and study the computational complexity of these new problems. We observe that 퐏퐂퐏 n is closely related to the equalizer problem in groups, while 퐍퐏퐂퐏 n is connected to the double twisted conjugacy problem for endomorphisms. Furthermore, it is shown that one of the strongest forms of the word problem in a group G (we call it the hereditary word problem) can be reduced to 퐍퐏퐂퐏 n in G in polynomial time. The main results are that 퐏퐂퐏 n is decidable in a finitely generated nilpotent group in polynomial time, while 퐍퐏퐂퐏 n is undecidable in any group containing free non-abelian subgroups (though the argument is very different from the classical case of free semigroups). We show that the double endomorphism twisted conjugacy problem is undecidable in free groups of sufficiently large finite rank. We also consider the bounded 퐏퐂퐏 and observe that it is in 퐍퐏 for any group with 퐏-time decidable word problem, meanwhile it is 퐍퐏-hard in any group containing free non-abelian subgroups. In particular, the bounded 퐏퐂퐏 is 퐍퐏-complete in non-elementary hyperbolic groups and non-abelian right angle Artin groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $G$ be a non-elementary hyperbolic group. Let $w$ be a proper group word. We show that the width of the verbal subgroup $w(G)=\langle w[G]\rangle$ is infinite. That is, there is no $l\in \mathbb Z$ such that any $g\in w(G)$ can be represented as a product of at most $l$ values of $w$ and their inverses. As a consequence, we obtain the same result for a wide class of relatively hyperbolic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Groups acting freely on -trees (-free groups) play a key role in the study of non-archimedean group actions. Following Stallingsʼ ideas, we develop graph-theoretic techniques to investigate subgroup structure of -free groups. As an immediate application of the presented method, we give an effective solution to the Uniform Membership Problem and the Power Problem in -free groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We considered the hypothesis that spontaneous dissociation between the direction of attention and eye movement causes encoding failure in change detection. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing eye fixation-related potentials (EFRP) at the encoding stage of a change blindness task; when participants freely inspect a scene containing an unmarked target region, in which a change will occur in a subsequent presentation. We measured EFRP amplitude prior to the execution of a saccade, depending on its starting or landing position relative to the target region. For those landings inside the target region, we found a difference in EFRP between correct detection and failure. Overall, correspondence between EFRP amplitude and the size of the saccade predicted successful detection of change; lack of correspondence was followed by change blindness. By contrast, saccade sizes and fixation durations around the target region were unrelated to subsequent change detection. Since correspondence between EFRP and eye movement indicates that overt attention was given to the target region, we concluded that overt attention is needed for successful encoding and that dissociation between eye movement and attention leads to change blindness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using graph-theoretic techniques for f.g. subgroups of Fℤ[t] we provide a criterion for a f.g. subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group to be of finite index. Moreover, we show that this criterion can be checked effectively. As an application we obtain an analogue of Greenberg-Stallings Theorem for f.g. fully residually free groups, and prove that a f.g. nonabelian subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group is of finite index in its normalizer and commensurator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the brain responses to the transitions from the static to moving audiovisual stimuli using magnetoencephalography. The spatially congruent auditory and visual stimuli moved in the same direction whereas the incongruent stimuli moved in the opposite directions. Using dipole modeling we found that the static-to-moving transitions evoked a neural response in the primary auditory cortex bilaterally. The response started about 100 ms after the motion onset from a negative component (mvN1) and lasted during the entire interval of the stimulus motion. The mvN1 component was similar to the classical auditory N1 response to the static sound, but had smaller amplitude and later latency. The coordinates of the mvN1 and N1 dipoles in the primary auditory cortex were also similar. The amplitude of the auditory response to the moving stimuli appears to be sensitive to spatial congruency of the audiovisual motion; it was larger in the incongruent than congruent condition. This is evidence that the moving visual stimuli modulate the early sensory activity in the primary auditory cortex. Such early audiovisual integration may be specific for motion processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied an effect of predictability in an audio–visual apparent motion task using magnetoencephalography. The synchronous sequences of audio–visual stimuli were self-triggered by subjects. The task was to detect the direction of the apparent motion in experimental blocks in which the motion either started from the side selected by subjects (predictable condition) or was random (unpredictable condition). Magnetic fields yielded three patterns of activity in the motor, auditory, and visual areas. Comparison of the dipole strength between predictable and unpredictable conditions revealed a significant difference of the preparatory motor activity in the time interval from −450 to −100 ms before self-triggering the stimulus. Perception of the audio–visual apparent motion was also modulated by predictability. However, the modulation was found only for the auditory activity but not for the visual one. The effect of predictability was selective and modulated only the auditory component N1 (100 ms after stimulus), which reflects initial evaluation of stimulus meaning. Importantly, the preparatory motor activity correlates with the following auditory activity mainly in the same hemisphere. Similar modulation by predictability of the motor and auditory activities suggests interactions between these two systems within an action–perception cycle. The mechanism of these interactions can be understood as an effect of anticipation of the own action outcomes on the preparatory motor and perceptual activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We used high-density event-related potentials (ERP) in a modified flanker paradigm to study the role of anticipated action consequences in action planning and the role of anticipation in the perception of action consequences. Prior to the experiment, participants were trained to classify target letters in a four-alternative forced-choice task; another letter was presented as an effect following each response. After participants had thus acquired the response–effect contingencies, in the experiment effect letters were presented as flankers to target letters. Effect-compatible flankers were letters that were learned as effects of the correct response to the target; effect-incompatible ones were learned as effects of other responses; neutral flankers were never presented as action effects. To help distinguish early and late effects of flankers on target processing, flankers were presented either simultaneously with the target or after a delay. We found that effect-incompatible flankers resulted in longer, than other flankers, time between the onset of the response-locked lateralized readiness potential and the response, indicating extended motor processing. ERP evoked by the effect-incompatible flankers differed from those evoked by other flankers in early perceptual component P1 and in later frontal component P2 reflecting stimulus evaluation and conflict detection. These results show that anticipating action consequences involves brain systems ranging from perceptual to executive; anticipated action effects constitute a link between perception and action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Perceptual grouping is a multi-stage process, irreducible to a single mechanism localized anatomically or chronometrically. To understand how various grouping mechanisms interact, we combined a phenomenological report paradigm with high-density event-related potential (ERP) measurements, using a 256-channel electrode array. We varied the relative salience of competing perceptual organizations in multi-stable dot lattices and asked observers to report perceived groupings. The ability to discriminate groupings (the grouping sensitivity) was positively correlated with the amplitude of the earliest ERP peak C1 (about 60 ms after stimulus onset) over the middle occipital area. This early activity is believed to reflect spontaneous feed-forward processes preceding perceptual awareness. Grouping sensitivity was negatively correlated with the amplitude of the next peak P1 (about 110 ms), which is believed to reflect lateral and feedback interactions associated with perceptual awareness and attention. This dissociation between C1 and P1 activity implies that the recruitment of fast, spontaneous mechanisms for grouping leads to high grouping sensitivity. Observers who fail to recruit these mechanisms are trying to compensate by using later mechanisms, which depend less on stimulus properties such as proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase patterns of human scalp alpha EEG activity show spontaneous transitions between different globally phase-synchronized states. We studied the dynamical properties of these transitions using the method of symbolic dynamics. We found greater predictability (deterministicity) and heterogeneity in the dynamics than what was expected from corresponding surrogate series in which linear correlations are retained. A possible explanation of these observations within the framework of chaotic itinerancy is discussed. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In three experiments, participants determined the orientation of a global triangle formed by three Gabor patches of a target spatial frequency in a field of distracters. The orientation of the target patches and their proximity were varied between conditions. When all the target patches had the same orientation this facilitated the response compared to random orientations. This effect occurred only when the patches were in close proximity. When the orientations of the target patches were different but aligned to the global triangle, facilitation occurred regardless of proximity. These contrasting types of facilitation were attributed to different early perceptual integration mechanisms that enable the perception of holistic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Data from a previous event-related potential (ERP) study in visual-perceptual grouping [Nikolaev AR, van Leeuwen C. Flexibility in spatial and non-spatial feature grouping: an event-related potentials study. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 2004;22:13–25] were re-analyzed to identify event-related dynamics of phase-synchronization. Methods: In 20Hz activity, uniform spreading of phase synchronization in closely spaced (∼2cm) scalp electrodes appears and disappears spontaneously. The lengths of synchronized activity intervals and how they vary as a function of stimulus presentation were compared between task and control conditions. Results: Synchronization reached a maximum in the task condition about 180ms post-stimulus onset, coinciding with the peak N180 ERP marking the deployment of task-specific attention. Synchronized intervals were longer in the task than in the control condition. Long (above 80ms) intervals occurred at a stable rate before and just after stimulus onset, but steeply decreased 200–400ms afterwards. Conclusions: Perceptual tasks lead to longer synchronized intervals in early visual areas. Attention deployment resets the ongoing synchronization. Event-related activity, besides low-frequency ERP, consists of high-frequency short and long synchronized intervals corresponding to evoked bursts and ongoing oscillations, respectively. Significance: High-density scalp recorded EEG revealed synchronization dynamics in a local, early visual area of cortex that can be interpreted as modulation of spontaneous ongoing task-related processes by attention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In a visual task using 12 healthy subjects, spread of evoked phase-synchronized activity was studied in local cortical areas. The areas were identified in a previous study of the same data set using event-related potentials (ERP). Chains of closely spaced (∼2 cm) scalp electrodes covering these areas were selected for phase synchronization analysis in which task and control conditions were compared. Phase synchronization spreading in the task condition at 20 Hz reached a maximum about 180 ms post-stimulus in the right occipital area. This maximum coincides with the attention-related negative peak N180 in the corresponding ERP study. Intervals of evoked phase synchronization were longer in the task than in control condition. It was concluded that attention-related modulation of evoked activity is reflected not only in enhanced amplitude of low-frequency ERP, but also in phase synchronization of high-frequency ongoing rhythms in local brain areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Spatiotemporal characteristics of spontaneous alpha EEG activity patterns are analyzed in terms of large-scale phase synchronization. During periods with strong phase synchronization over the entire scalp, phase patterns take either of two forms; one is a gradual phase shift between frontal and occipital regions and the other is a stepwise pattern with a sudden phase shift in the central region. The former is regarded as a traveling wave of electrocortical activity, of which the direction of propagation is predominantly from anterior to posterior in three out of four subjects, and opposite in the remaining one. The other activity pattern observed may correspond to a standing wave composed of two traveling waves propagating in opposite directions. The duration distributions of these patterns have similar forms within a subject, which suggests that they share the same mechanism for their generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Early perceptual grouping was studied using 256-channels event-related potentials in a choice response task. The task involved the detection of a triangle configuration of Gabor patches among patches of different spatial frequencies. The influence of two task-irrelevant factors was compared. One was the spatial proximity relation between the target patches and the other their relative orientation, a non-spatial relationship. Non-spatial effects were predominant in early peaks N64 and P100 in the occipital areas, and were reduced in size for later peaks. Spatial effects started from N180 in the occipital areas and continued in P250 and P430 in the central areas, increasing in size with time. These findings constitute a case of reversal of the usual order of spatial and non-spatial feature processing, illustrating that the flexibility in the early visual system may be greater than previously assumed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

High-density, 256-channel, event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded in 12 subjects, who had to find a triangle of which only the corners were marked in an array of distracters. The orientation of the corner markers to each other and their proximity varied across trials. An early, pre-attentional, nonspatial effect of marker orientation was found at 64 and 100 ms after stimulus presentation in the right occipital areas. A spatial effect of marker proximity (triangle size) was reflected in a negative peak of 180 ms in the occipital areas and in P250 and P430 in the central areas. This result is contrary to the usual precedence of spatial over nonspatial grouping and suggests a greater flexibility in precedence based on task demands. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The dynamical properties of large-scale, long-term phase synchronization behavior in the alpha range of electroencephalographic signals were investigated. We observed dynamical phase synchronization and presented evidence of an underlying spatiotemporal ordering. Fluctuations in the duration of episodes of intermittent synchrony are scale-invariant. Moreover, the exponent used to describe this behavior is stable across different normal subjects. The results provide a new feature of self-organization in human brain activity and constitute a quantitative basis for modeling its dynamics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For finitely generated nilpotent groups, we employ Mal'cev coordinates to solve several classical algorithmic problems efficiently. Computation of normal forms, the membership problem, the conjugacy problem, and computation of presentations for subgroups are solved using only logarithmic space and quasilinear time. Logarithmic space presentation-uniform versions of these algorithms are provided. Compressed-word versions of the same problems, in which each input word is provided as a straight-line program, are solved in polynomial time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigation of interdependence of Size congruity, SNARC, and numerical distance effect. • A factorial design encompassing all three effects, combined with EEG measurement, comparing across identical visual stimuli. • All effects relating to spatial associations of symbolic numbers appear at an early stage of processing (P1). • Independence of size congruity and SNARC effects a matter of hemispheric specialization. Spatial constituents of adult symbolic number representation produce effects of size-value congruity, Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC), and numerical distance. According to behavioral experiments, these effects belong to distinct processing stages. Yet, these effects evoke overlapping responses in both early and late Event Related Potentials (ERPs). To probe whether these overlaps indicate sharing of resources, all relevant stimulus and response conditions were factorially combined in a numerical value comparison task. To secure ERP validity, same numbers were compared against variable reference values. This design resulted in previously unobserved interactions in behavior but inhibited late ERP effects. All effects arose early in the P1 component (around 100 ms) and most showed hemispheric specificity. Independency of congruity and SNARC effects was observed, whereas SNARC and numerical distance were closely intertwined. Differences in hemispheric specificity, rather than stage-wise separation, were key to independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye tracking research has revealed that refixations (returns to previously visited locations) serve to recover information lost or missed during scanning (Gilchrist and Harvey, 2000; Zelinsky et al., 2011). However, the neural mechanisms of human refixation control are unexplored. We combined eye tracking with EEG registration in a visual search task. EEG epochs related to ordinary fixations and refixations were analyzed for saccade planning effects in the presaccadic interval and for information acquisition effects in the postsaccadic interval. To control for overlapping brain responses in a saccade sequence, EEG epochs were matched between conditions on all relevant eye movement characteristics (Dimigen et al., 2011; Nikolaev et al., 2016). To control for the effect of time, EEG epochs were matched on fixation rank within trials. EEG in the presaccadic interval differed between refixation and ordinary fixation during the shift of attention to the next saccade target. Thus, refixation control operates on saccade planning (Nikolaev et al., 2018). In the postsaccadic interval, EEG differed between refixation and ordinary fixation only in lambda activity over occipital areas, which is associated with perception at fixation. This suggests that early information acquisition is distinct in refixations. Ordinary fixations to locations that were later revisited differed during the entire postsaccadic interval from ones that were not. This suggests attenuation not only of perception but also encoding, which results in loss of information that a subsequent refixation has to recover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When EEG is co-registered with eye movements in free-viewing tasks, EEG response to cognitive processes of interest maybe confounded with that to sequential eye movements (Dimigen et al 2011; Nikolaev et al 2016). These two can be disentangled using generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) with eye movement parameters and experimental conditions as predictor variables. Since GAMM can account for non-linearity in data, it is particularly suited to modeling EEG. GAMM was used to investigate the role of visual saliency in saccade guidance in an EEG eye movement co-registration study. Participants were asked to search, during an 8s interval, for a contour formed by 7 collinear Gabor elements embedded in a field of similar but randomly oriented distractors. Participants were then asked to indicate whether the contour was present, which was the case in half of the trials. Since the interval preceding saccade onset (presaccadic interval) involves saccade planning to the next fixation location, EEG epochs in this interval were modeled using GAMM with visual saliency of the subsequent fixation location and perisaccadic eye movement parameters as predictors. Besides the effect of fixation duration and saccade size on pressaccadic EEG, low presaccadic EEG amplitude was associated with high saliency at the next fixation location in both contour-present and contour-absent conditions (van Humbeeck et al 2018). This reveals the role of bottom-up saliency in saccade guidance. Using GAMM, the effects of visual saliency on saccade guidance were successfully isolated from the effect of eye movements on EEG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do we perceive a group of dancers moving in synchrony differently from a group of drones flying in-sync? The brain has dedicated networks for perception of coherent motion and interacting human bodies. However, it is unclear to what extent the underlying neural mechanisms overlap. Here we delineate these mechanisms by independently manipulating the degree of motion synchrony and the humanoid quality of multiple point-light displays (PLDs). Four PLDs moving within a group were changing contrast in cycles of fixed frequencies, which permits the identification of the neural processes that are tagged by these frequencies. In the frequency spectrum of the steady-state EEG we found two emergent frequency components, which signified distinct levels of interactions between PLDs. The first component was associated with motion synchrony, the second with the human quality of the moving items. These findings indicate that visual processing of synchronously moving dancers involves two distinct neural mechanisms: one for the perception of a group of items moving in synchrony and one for the perception of a group of moving items with human quality. We propose that these mechanisms underlie high-level perception of social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Films of Ga2O3 were grown by Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) on bulk heavily B-doped (001)-oriented diamond substrates using thin interlayers of Al2O3 deposited by HVPE or AlN/AlGaN deposited by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The growth with AlN/AlGaN was dominated by the formation of a highly conducting ɛ-phase with poor crystalline quality. For these samples, excessive leakage of Schottky diodes and of the Ga2O3/diamond heterojunction prevented meaningful electrical characterization. The film grown with the Al2O3 interlayer was mainly composed of (−201) β-Ga2O3 with an admixture of the ɛ-phase. The film had a low density of residual shallow donors, 5 × 1015 cm−3, with deep electron traps spectra consisting of the well documented centers for β-Ga2O3 near Ec 0.27, Ec 0.7, and Ec 1 eV, all of which are often ascribed to native defects or their complexes. The electrical properties of heterojunctions were mostly determined by the properties of the Ga2O3 films. Both Schottky diodes and heterojunctions showed measurable photosensitivity for 259 nm wavelength excitation, but very low photocurrent for near-UV (365 nm wavelength excitation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shape perception is intrinsically holistic: combinations of features give rise to configurations with emergent properties that are different from the sum of the parts. The current study investigated neural markers of holistic shape representations learned by means of categorization training. We used the EEG frequency tagging technique, where two parts of a shape stimulus were 'tagged' by modifying their contrast at different temporal frequencies. Signals from both parts are integrated and, as a result, emergent frequency components (so-called, intermodulation responses, IMs), caused by nonlinear interaction of two frequency signals, are observed in the EEG spectrum. First, participants were trained in 4 sessions to discriminate highly similar, unfamiliar shapes into two categories, defined based on the combination of features. After training, EEG was recorded while frequency-tagged shapes from either the trained or the untrained shape family were presented. For all IMs combined, no learning effects were detected, but post hoc analyses of higher-order IMs revealed stronger occipital and occipito-temporal IMs for both trained and untrained exemplars of the trained shape family as compared to the untrained shape family. In line with recent findings, we suggest that the higher-order IMs may reflect high-level visual computations, like holistic shape categorization, resulting from a cascade of non-linear operations. Higher order frequency responses are relatively low in power, hence results should be interpreted cautiously and future research is needed to confirm these effects. In general, these findings are, to our knowledge, the first to show IMs as a neural correlate of perceptual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex study was performed on a set of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor structures grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on miscut Si(111) wafers with a highly resistive epitaxial Si layer to investigate the influence of substrate miscut on their properties. The results showed that wafer misorientation had an influence on the strain evolution during the growth and surface morphology, and could have a strong impact on the mobility of 2D electron gas, with a weak optimum at 0.5° miscut angle. A numerical analysis revealed that the interface roughness was a main parameter responsible for the variation in electron mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A possible solution for the realization of high-efficiency visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs) exploits InGaN-quantum-dot-based active regions. However, the role of local composition fluctuations inside the quantum dots and their effect of the device characteristics have not yet been examined in sufficient detail. Here, we present numerical simulations of a quantum-dot structure restored from an experimental high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image. A single InGaN island with the size of ten nanometers and nonuniform indium content distribution is analyzed. A number of two- and three-dimensional models of the quantum dot are derived from the experimental image by a special numerical algorithm, which enables electromechanical, continuum k → · p → , and empirical tight-binding calculations, including emission spectra prediction. Effectiveness of continuous and atomistic approaches are compared, and the impact of InGaN composition fluctuations on the ground-state electron and hole wave functions and quantum dot emission spectrum is analyzed in detail. Finally, comparison of the predicted spectrum with the experimental one is performed to assess the applicability of various simulation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the three-dimensional (3D) character of the strain field created around InGaN islands formed within the multilayer structures spaced by a less than 1-nm-thick GaN layer for the creation of spatially correlated electronically coupled quantum dots (QDs). The laterally inhomogeneous vertical out-diffusion of In atoms during growth interruption is the basic mechanism for the formation of InGaN islands within as-deposited 2D layers. An anisotropic 3D strain field created in the first layer is sufficient to justify the vertical correlation of the islands formed in the upper layers spaced by a sufficiently thin GaN layer. When the thickness of a GaN spacer exceeds 1 nm, QDs from different layers under the same growth conditions emit independently and in the same wavelength range. When extremely thin (less than 1 nm), a GaN spacer is formed solely by applying short GI, and a double wavelength emission in the blue and green spectral ranges evidences the electromechanical coupling. With k → · p → calculations including electromechanical fields, we model the optoelectronic properties of a structure with three InGaN lens-shaped QDs embedded in a GaN matrix, with three different configurations of In content. The profiles of the band structures are strongly dependent on the In content arrangement, and the quantum-confined Stark effect is significantly reduced in a structure with an increasing gradient of In content from the top to the bottom QD. This configuration exhibits carrier tunneling through the QDs, an increase of wave functions overlap, and evidence emerges of three distinct peaks in the spectral range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the study of the influence of Fe segregation into the unintentionally doped GaN channel layer in AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures with Fe-doped GaN buffer layer on the electrical properties of two-dimensional electron gas are presented. A set of several samples was grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy and characterized by the van der Pauw method. The dependence of concentration and mobility of the two-dimensional electron gas on the channel layer thickness was analyzed theoretically by self-consistent solving of 1D Poisson and Schrödinger equations and scattering rate calculations within the momentum relaxation time approximation. It was found that both concentration and mobility decreases were responsible for the increase in the sheet resistance in the structures with a thinner channel layer, with a drop in mobility being not only due to ionized impurity scattering, but also due to a combined effect of weakening of screening, lower carrier energy and change in form-factors on scattering by interface roughness, dislocations and polar optical phonons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we investigate the possibility of a-GaN ELOG process and its peculiarities for stripes of various orientations. It is shown that stripe orientation allows governing such important parameters of ELOG-process as lateral growth rate, voids high, fast growth direction. The intermediate orientations of stripe windows (differ from conventional (0001) and (1-100)) can be effectively used for double-cross ELOG process. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Visual integration between target and irrelevant features leads to effects of irrelevant feature congruency (Stroop) or variation (Garner) on target classification performance. Presenting closed geometrical shapes as stimuli, we obtained Stroop and Garner effects of one part of their contour on another, in response times and error rates. The correlates of these effects in brain activity were observed in event-related potentials (ERP). Stroop effects occurred in ERP amplitude of the N1 and N2 components, starting about 170 ms after stimulus onset; Garner effects occurred in amplitude of the rising part of the P3 component, starting about 330 ms after stimulus onset. A subsequent point-wise analysis of Stroop and Garner effects in ERP showed that they belong to different, cascaded processing stages. The difference in time course between Stroop and Garner effects in ERP is in accordance with the view that both are produced by different mechanisms, the former sensitive to interference within presentations and the latter sensitive to interference between presentations. The brief interval of 330–370 ms after stimulus onset when these two mechanisms overlap may correspond to the central processing bottleneck, responsible for the combinations of Stroop and Garner effects generally found in response times. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon occurs when perceivers must report two targets embedded in a sequence of distracters; if the first target precedes the second by 200–600 msec, the second one is often missed. We investigated AB by measuring dynamic cross-lag phase synchronization for 565 electrode pairs in 40-Hz–range EEG. Phase synchrony, on average, was higher in experimental conditions, where two targets are reported, than in control conditions, where only the second target is reported. The effect occurred in electrode pairs covering the whole head. Timing of the synchrony was crucial: Brief episodes of enhanced synchrony occurred 100–500 msec before expected target onset in AB conditions where the second target was correctly reported. These results show that intrinsic brain dynamics produce anticipatory synchronization in transient assemblies of cortical areas. Enhanced levels of anticipatory synchronization occur in response to the demands of the task in conditions where the system's limited capacity is under strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Densities of a- and a+c-type threading dislocations for a series of GaN films grown in different modes by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are determined from the x-ray diffraction profiles in skew geometry. The reciprocal space maps are also studied. Theory of x-ray scattering from crystals with dislocations is extended in order to take into account contribution from both threading and misfit dislocations. The broadening of the reciprocal space maps along the surface normal and the rotation of the intensity distribution ellipse is attributed to misfit dislocations at the interface. We find that the presence of a sharp AlN/GaN interface leads to an ordering of misfit dislocations and reduces strain inhomogeneity in GaN films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye movement research has shown that attention shifts from the currently fixated location to the next before a saccade is executed. We investigated whether the cost of the attention shift depends on higher-order processing at the time of fixation, in particular on visual working memory load differences between fixations and refixations on task-relevant items. The attention shift is reflected in EEG activity in the saccade-related potential (SRP). In a free viewing task involving visual search and memorization of multiple targets amongst distractors, we compared the SRP in first fixations versus refixations on targets and distractors. The task-relevance of targets implies that more information will be loaded in memory (e.g. both identity and location) than for distractors (e.g. location only). First fixations will involve greater memory load than refixations, since first fixations involve loading of new items, while refixations involve rehearsal of previously visited items. The SRP in the interval preceding the saccade away from a target or distractor revealed that saccade preparation is affected by task-relevance and refixation behavior. For task-relevant items only, we found longer fixation duration and higher SRP amplitudes for first fixations than for refixations over the occipital region and the opposite effect over the frontal region. Our findings provide first neurophysiological evidence that working memory loading of task-relevant information at fixation affects saccade planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanistic modelling of blood clotting and fibrin-polymer mesh formation is of significant value for medical and biophysics applications. This paper presents a combination of two pointwise kinetic models represented by system of ODEs. One of them represents the reaction dynamics of clotting factors including the role of the platelet membranes. The second one describes the fibrin-polymer formation as a multistage polymerization process with a sol-gel transition at the final stage. Complex-value second order Rosenbrock method (CROS) is employed for the computational experiments. A sensitivity analysis method built into the computational scheme helps clarify non-evident dependencies in the exhaustive system of ODEs. The unified model was primarily verified using conditions of factor VII deficiency. The model, however requires a significant effort to be tested against experimental data available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Fixation-related potentials were studied in visual search with free eye movements. • The P300 is a neural correlate of target detection in visual search. • The amplitude of the target-related P300 depends on target probability. Abstract This study investigated the influence of target probability on the neural response to target detection in free viewing visual search. Participants were asked to indicate the number of targets (one or two) among distractors in a visual search task while EEG and eye movements were co-registered. Target probability was manipulated by varying the set size of the displays between 10, 22, and 30 items. Fixation-related potentials time-locked to first target fixations revealed a pronounced P300 at the centro-parietal cortex with larger amplitudes for set sizes 22 and 30 than for set size 10. With increasing set size, more distractor fixations preceded the detection of the target, resulting in a decreased target probability and, consequently, a larger P300. For distractors, no increase of P300 amplitude with set size was observed. The findings suggest that set size specifically affects target but not distractor processing in overt serial visual search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]