Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “CYBERNETICS”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,081 records · Page 60Linked to original sources

Back to the future: the human protein index (HPI) and the agenda for post-proteomic biology.

The effort to produce an index of all human proteins (the human protein index, or HPI) began twenty years ago, before the initiation of the human genome program. Because DNA sequencing technology is inherently simpler and more scalable than protein analytical technology, and because the finiteness of genomes invited a spirit of rapid conquest, the notion of genome sequencing has displaced that of protein databases in the minds of most molecular biologists for the last decade. However, now that the human genome sequence is nearing completion, a major realignment is under way that brings proteins back to the center of biological thinking. Using an influx of new and improved protein technologies--from mass spectrometry to re-engineered two-dimensional (2-D) gel systems, the original objectives of the HPI have been expanded and the time frame for its execution radically shortened. Several additional large scale technology efforts flowing from the HPI are also described.

Biotechnology↗

Crew systems: integrating human and technical subsystems for the exploration of space.

Space exploration missions will require combining human and technical subsystems into overall "crew systems" capable of performing under the rigorous conditions of outer space. This report describes substantive and conceptual relationships among humans, intelligent machines, and communication systems, and explores how these components may be combined to complement and strengthen one another. We identify key research issues in the combination of humans and technology and examine the role of individual differences, group processes, and environmental conditions. We conclude that a crew system is, in effect, a social cyborg, a living system consisting of multiple individuals whose capabilities are extended by advanced technology.

Cybernetics↗

Cybermedics.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Cybernetics↗

Cell sociology and the problem of automation in the development of pluricellular animals.

The principles of automation (automatism and programming) in the unfolding of spatiotemporal patterns during animal development are deduced from experimental data reconsidered from the point of view of cell sociology. The developmental programme in the egg is not part of the genetic information but a part of the cytoplasmic information. Throughout development cells store extra-cellular information released by their neighbours in the form of cytoplasmic information. Successive determinations cannot be considered as successive reprogrammings of cells: each one consists of a selection of one specific programme from the total information previously stored. This programme specifies cell interactions in the determined population as a whole; it is very imprecise and is progressively completed during the course of further differentiation by information released by neighbouring cell populations. Complicated patterns may emerge from only two homogeneous populations involved in distinct differentiation pathways and confronting each other. Consequently the "egg developmental programme" provides gene effectors and specific physico-chemical conditions necessary for the staring of at least two distinct differentation pathways. Experimental data suggest that there are two components in this programme. One is a molecular machinery which starts at fertilization in the whole cytoplasm. It yields two programmes of differentiation, typically first an endodermal and then an ectodermal one. The other component of the egg developmental programme, which does not require specific information, allows the interception of the first (endodermal) programme. The application of informatics to developmental automatism is discussed in the latter part of the paper.

Cell Differentiation↗

The sources of heritable variation in cellular growth capacities.

Diverse genetic and epigenetic changes occur in cells in response to unfavorable environments. Most of these changes do not directly cause the malignant transformation. An occasional, rare change can lead to cancer, although it may be expressed only in the environmental context that gave rise to it. The variety of such changes is so enormous that it is impossible to derive unique, cellular mechanisms. A set of rules is derived for describing the interactions between cell and its surround which result in malignancy. It has often been said that 'nature is simple'--illusion! It is our mind which looks for simplicity to avoid effort. L. Brillouin, Scientific Uncertainty and Information 1964.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Distributed parallel processing in the vertical vestibulo-ocular reflex: learning networks compared to tensor theory.

The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is capable of producing compensatory eye movements in three dimensions. It utilizes the head rotational velocity signals from the semicircular canals to control the contractions of the extraocular muscles. Since canal and muscle coordinate frames are not orthogonal and differ from one another, a sensorimotor transformation must be produced by the VOR neural network. Tensor theory has been used to construct a linear transformation that can model the three-dimensional behavior of the VOR. But tensor theory does not take the distributed, redundant nature of the VOR neural network into account. It suggests that the neurons subserving the VOR, such as vestibular nucleus neurons, should have specific sensitivity-vectors. Actual data, however, are not in accord. Data from the cat show that the sensitivity-vectors of vestibular nucleus neurons, rather than aligning with any specific vectors, are dispersed widely. As an alternative to tensor theory, we modeled the vertical VOR as a three-layered neural network programmed using the back-propagation learning algorithm. Units in mature networks had divergent sensitivity-vectors which resembled those of actual vestibular nucleus neurons in the cat. This similarity suggests that the VOR sensorimotor transformation may be represented redundantly rather than uniquely. The results demonstrate how vestibular nucleus neurons can encode the VOR sensorimotor transformation in a distributed manner.

Animals↗

Extraction of motion parallax structure in the visual system. I.

We present a paradigm to estimate local affine motion parallax structure from a varying image irradiance pattern. The method is based on a matching of jets of irradiance rather than the local image irradiance pattern or features of it. It does not put any constraints on the structure of the image irradiance pattern. Moreover, the aperture problem does not arise and additional ad hoc constraints on the velocity field like the "smoothness constraint" are superfluous. An implementation is designed such that the affine structure of the local motion parallax field is represented through simple combinations of the outputs of physiologically plausible receptive fields and their temporal derivatives.

Cybernetics↗

Extraction of motion parallax structure in the visual system. II.

We have developed an algorithm to extract local affine motion parallax structure of a varying image irradiance pattern in Part I. In Part II, we present computational results of this algorithm for situations in which the information about the affine structure is contained in only two successive images. This applies to a large class of problems (e.g. two-image motion sequences and stereoscopic vision). The results show the effects of spatio-temporal discretisation and internal noise on the performance of this algorithm.

Algorithms↗

White noise analysis of temporal properties in simple receptive fields of cat cortex.

We studied the linear and nonlinear temporal response properties of simple cells in cat visual cortex by presenting at single positions in the receptive field an optimally oriented bar stimulus whose luminance was modulated in a random, binary fashion. By crosscorrelating a cell's response with the input it was possible to obtain the zeroth-, first-, and second-order Wiener kernels at each RF location. Simple cells showed pronounced nonlinear temporal properties as revealed by the presence of prominent second-order kernels. A more conventional type of response histogram was also calculated by time-locking a histogram on the occurrence of the desired stimulus in the random sequence. A comparison of the time course of this time-locked response with that of the kernel prediction indicated that nonlinear temporal effects of order higher than two are unimportant. The temporal properties of simple cells were well represented by a cascade model composed of a linear filter followed by a static nonlinearity. These modelling results suggested that for simple cells, the nonlinearity occurs late and probably is a soft threshold associated with the spike generating mechanism of the cortical cell itself. This result is surprising in view of the known threshold nonlinearities in preceding lateral geniculate and retinal neurons. It suggests that geniculocortical connectivity cancels the earlier nonlinearities to create a highly linear representation inside cortical simple cells.

Animals↗

On the rate of convergence in topology preserving neural networks.

A formal analysis of the neighborhood interaction function selection in the topology preserving unsupervised neural network is presented in this paper. The definition of the neighborhood interaction function is motivated by anatomical evidence as opposed to what is currently used, which is a uniform neighborhood interaction set. By selecting a neighborhood interaction function with a neighborhood amplitude of interaction which is decreasing in spatial domain the topological order is always enforced and the rate of self-organization to final equilibrium state is improved. Several simulations are carried out to show the improvement in rate between using a neighborhood interaction function vs. using a neighborhood interaction set. An error measure functional is further defined to compare the two approaches quantitatively.

Animals↗

Controlling the dynamics of a two-joined arm by central patterning and reflex-like processing. A two-stage hybrid model.

It is demonstrated, that a two-joined arm performing goal directed movements is controllable (a) by two central pattern generators (CPG) representing sampled data control, each referring to one joint, initiated for exactly one period, and producing the angular movement width about this joint, and (b) by reflex-like processes operating continuously with respect to time. The latter eliminate the effects of dynamic coupling, gravity, inertia, and mechanical impedance on the movement by 'proprioceptive feedforward' of position, velocity and acceleration signals, thus enabling the CPGs to handle the arm segments as if they were independent and free from forces. Higher ordered centers (with respect to the CPGs) therefore only need to control the kinematics, not dynamics, of the arm.

Animals↗

A group-theoretic approach to rings of coupled biological oscillators.

In this paper, a general approach for studying rings of coupled biological oscillators is presented. This approach, which is group-theoretic in nature, is based on the finding that symmetric ring networks of coupled non-linear oscillators possess generic patterns of phase-locked oscillations. The associated analysis is independent of the mathematical details of the oscillators' intrinsic dynamics and the nature of the coupling between them. The present approach thus provides a framework for distinguishing universal dynamic behaviour from that which depends upon further structure. In this study, the typical oscillation patterns for the general case of a symmetric ring of n coupled non-linear oscillators and the specific cases of three- and five-membered rings are considered. Transitions between different patterns of activity are modelled as symmetry-breaking bifurcations. The effects of one-way coupling in a ring network and the differences between discrete and continuous systems are discussed. The theoretical predictions for symmetric ring networks are compared with physiological observations and numerical simulations. This comparison is limited to two examples: neuronal networks and mammalian intestinal activity. The implications of the present approach for the development of physiologically meaningful oscillator models are discussed.

Animals↗

Flexible vowel recognition by the generation of dynamic coherence in oscillator neural networks: speaker-independent vowel recognition.

We propose a new model for speaker-independent vowel recognition which uses the flexibility of the dynamic linking that results from the synchronization of oscillating neural units. The system consists of an input layer and three neural layers, which are referred to as the A-, B- and C-centers. The input signals are a time series of linear prediction (LPC) spectrum envelopes of auditory signals. At each time-window within the series, the A-center receives input signals and extracts local peaks of the spectrum envelope, i.e., formants, and encodes them into local groups of independent oscillations. Speaker-independent vowel characteristics are embedded as a connection matrix in the B-center according to statistical data of Japanese vowels. The associative interaction in the B-center and reciprocal interaction between the A- and B-centers selectively activate a vowel as a global synchronized pattern over two centers. The C-center evaluates the synchronized activities among the three formant regions to give the selective output of the category among the five Japanese vowels. Thus, a flexible ability of dynamical linking among features is achieved over the three centers. The capability in the present system was investigated for speaker-independent recognition of Japanese vowels. The system demonstrated a remarkable ability for the recognition of vowels very similar to that of human listeners, including misleading vowels. In addition, it showed stable recognition for unsteady input signals and robustness against background noise. The optimum condition of the frequency of oscillation is discussed in comparison with stimulus-dependent synchronizations observed in neurophysiological experiments of the cortex.

Auditory Cortex↗

Simulation of daytime vigilance by the additive interaction of a homeostatic and a circadian process.

The two-process model of sleep regulation postulates that a homeostatic and a circadian process underlie sleep regulation. The timing of sleep and waking is accounted for by the interaction of these two processes. The assumptions of two separate processes or of a single process resulting from their additive interaction are mathematically equivalent but conceptually different. Based on an additive interaction, subjective alertness ratings in a forced desynchrony protocol and subjective sleepiness ratings in a photoperiod experiment were simulated. The correspondence between empirical and simulated data supports the basic assumption of the model.

Arousal↗