Why Only Us Berwick, Robert C; Chomsky, Noam
2015, 2016-01-15
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Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it.
Motivation: Biological sequence data is accumulating rapidly, motivating the development of improved high-throughput methods for sequence classification. Results: UBLAST and USEARCH are new ...algorithms enabling sensitive local and global search of large sequence databases at exceptionally high speeds. They are often orders of magnitude faster than BLAST in practical applications, though sensitivity to distant protein relationships is lower. UCLUST is a new clustering method that exploits USEARCH to assign sequences to clusters. UCLUST offers several advantages over the widely used program CD-HIT, including higher speed, lower memory use, improved sensitivity, clustering at lower identities and classification of much larger datasets. Availability: Binaries are available at no charge for non-commercial use at http://www.drive5.com/usearch Contact: robert@drive5.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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bstract
Motivated by recent studies of holographic complexity, we examine the question of circuit complexity in quantum field theory. We provide a quantum circuit model for the preparation of ...Gaussian states, in particular the ground state, in a free scalar field theory for general dimensions. Applying the geometric approach of Nielsen to this quantum circuit model, the complexity of the state becomes the length of the shortest geodesic in the space of circuits. We compare the complexity of the ground state of the free scalar field to the analogous results from holographic complexity, and find some surprising similarities.
Synapses are highly plastic and are modified by changes in patterns of neural activity or sensory experience. Plasticity of cortical excitatory synapses is thought to be important for learning and ...memory, leading to alterations in sensory representations and cognitive maps. However, these changes must be coordinated across other synapses within local circuits to preserve neural coding schemes and the organization of excitatory and inhibitory inputs, i.e., excitatory-inhibitory balance. Recent studies indicate that inhibitory synapses are also plastic and are controlled directly by a large number of neuromodulators, particularly during episodes of learning. Many modulators transiently alter excitatory-inhibitory balance by decreasing inhibition, and thus disinhibition has emerged as a major mechanism by which neuromodulation might enable long-term synaptic modifications naturally. This review examines the relationships between neuromodulation and synaptic plasticity, focusing on the induction of long-term changes that collectively enhance cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance for improving perception and behavior.
Over the past two decades, the 5-year survival for ovarian cancer patients has substantially improved owing to more effective surgery and treatment with empirically optimized combinations of ...cytotoxic drugs, but the overall cure rate remains approximately 30%. Many investigators think that further empirical trials using combinations of conventional agents are likely to produce only modest incremental improvements in outcome. Given the heterogeneity of this disease, increases in long-term survival might be achieved by translating recent insights at the molecular and cellular levels to personalize individual strategies for treatment and to optimize early detection.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Addictive drugs have in common that they target the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system. This system originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects mainly to the nucleus accumbens ...(NAc) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Here, we review the effects that such drugs leave on glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission in these three brain areas. We refer to these changes as drug-evoked synaptic plasticity, which outlasts the presence of the drug in the brain and contributes to the reorganization of neural circuits. While in most cases these early changes are not sufficient to induce the disease, with repetitive drug exposure, they may add up and contribute to addictive behavior.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
There have been major advances in our understanding of the cellular and molecular biology of the human malignancies that are collectively referred to as ovarian cancer. At a recent Helene Harris ...Memorial Trust meeting, an international group of researchers considered actions that should be taken to improve the outcome for women with ovarian cancer. Nine major recommendations are outlined in this Opinion article.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Next-generation sequencing produces vast amounts of data with errors that are difficult to distinguish from true biological variation when coverage is low.
We demonstrate large reductions in error ...frequencies, especially for high-error-rate reads, by three independent means: (i) filtering reads according to their expected number of errors, (ii) assembling overlapping read pairs and (iii) for amplicon reads, by exploiting unique sequence abundances to perform error correction. We also show that most published paired read assemblers calculate incorrect posterior quality scores.
These methods are implemented in the USEARCH package. Binaries are freely available at http://drive5.com/usearch.
robert@drive5.com
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The six members of the family of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding proteins (IGFBPs) were originally characterized as passive reservoirs of circulating IGFs, but they are now understood to ...have many actions beyond their endocrine role in IGF transport. IGFBPs also function in the pericellular and intracellular compartments to regulate cell growth and survival - they interact with many proteins, in addition to their canonical ligands IGF-I and IGF-II. Intranuclear roles of IGFBPs in transcriptional regulation, induction of apoptosis and DNA damage repair point to their intimate involvement in tumour development, progression and resistance to treatment. Tissue or circulating IGFBPs might also be useful as prognostic biomarkers.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK