Modeling hippocampal spatial cells in rodents navigating in 3D environments.

Studies on the neural correlates of navigation in 3D environments are plagued by several issues that need to be solved. For example, experimental studies show markedly different place cell responses in rats and bats, both navigating in 3D environments. In this study, we focus on modelling the spatial cells in rodents in a 3D environment. We propose a deep autoencoder network to model the place and grid cells in a simulated agent navigating in a 3D environment. The input layer to the autoencoder network model is the HD layer, which encodes the agent's HD in terms of azimuth (θ) and pitch angles (ϕ). The output of this layer is given as input to the Path Integration (PI) layer, which computes displacement in all the preferred directions. The bottleneck layer of the autoencoder model encodes the spatial cell-like responses. Both grid cell and place cell-like responses are observed. The proposed model is verified using two experimental studies with two 3D environments. This model paves the way for a holistic approach using deep neural networks to model spatial cells in 3D navigation.

Erasure Tolerant Quantum Memory and the Quantum Null Energy Condition in Holographic Systems.

Investigating principles for storage of quantum information at finite temperature with minimal need for active error correction is an active area of research. We bear upon this question in two-dimensional holographic conformal field theories via the quantum null energy condition that we have shown earlier to implement the restrictions imposed by quantum thermodynamics on such many-body systems. We study an explicit encoding of a logical qubit into two similar chirally propagating excitations of finite von Neumann entropy on a finite temperature background whose erasure can be implemented by an appropriate inhomogeneous and instantaneous energy-momentum inflow from an infinite energy memoryless bath due to which the system transits to a thermal state. Holographically, these fast erasure processes can be depicted by generalized AdS-Vaidya geometries described previously in which no assumption of specific form of bulk matter is needed. We show that the quantum null energy condition gives analytic results for the minimal finite temperature needed for the deletion which is larger than the initial background temperature in consistency with Landauer's principle. In particular, we find a simple expression for the minimum final temperature needed for the erasure of a large number of encoding qubits. We also find that if the encoding qubits are localized over an interval shorter than a specific localization length, then the fast erasure process is impossible, and furthermore this localization length is the largest for an optimal amount of encoding qubits determined by the central charge. We estimate the optimal encoding qubits for realistic protection against fast erasure. We discuss possible generalizations of our study for novel constructions of fault-tolerant quantum gates operating at finite temperature.

Quantum Thermodynamics of Holographic Quenches and Bounds on the Growth of Entanglement from the Quantum Null Energy Condition.

The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a lower bound on the energy-momentum tensor in terms of the variation of the entanglement entropy of a subregion along a null direction. To gain insights into quantum thermodynamics of many-body systems, we study if the QNEC restricts irreversible entropy production in quenches driven by energy-momentum inflow from an infinite memoryless bath in two-dimensional holographic theories. We find that an increase in both entropy and temperature, as implied by the Clausius inequality of classical thermodynamics, is necessary but not sufficient to not violate QNEC in quenches leading to transitions between thermal states with momentums that are dual to Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli geometries. For an arbitrary initial state, we can determine the lower and upper bounds on the increase of entropy (temperature) for a fixed increase in temperature (entropy). Our results provide explicit instances of quantum lower and upper bounds on irreversible entropy production whose existence has been established in literature. We also find monotonic behavior of the nonsaturation of the QNEC with time after a quench, and analytically determine their asymptotic values. Our study shows that the entanglement entropy of an interval of length l always thermalizes in time l/2 with an exponent 3/2. Furthermore, we determine the coefficient of initial quadratic growth of entanglement analytically for any l, and show that the slope of the asymptotic ballistic growth of entanglement for a semi-infinite interval is twice the difference of the entropy densities of the final and initial states. We determine explicit upper and lower bounds on these rates of growth of entanglement.

A Review of Incident Prediction, Resource Allocation, and Dispatch Models for Emergency Management.

In the last fifty years, researchers have developed statistical, data-driven, analytical, and algorithmic approaches for designing and improving emergency response management (ERM) systems. The problem has been noted as inherently difficult and constitutes spatio-temporal decision making under uncertainty, which has been addressed in the literature with varying assumptions and approaches. This survey provides a detailed review of these approaches, focusing on the key challenges and issues regarding four sub-processes: (a) incident prediction, (b) incident detection, (c) resource allocation, and (c) computer-aided dispatch for emergency response. We highlight the strengths and weaknesses of prior work in this domain and explore the similarities and differences between different modeling paradigms. We conclude by illustrating open challenges and opportunities for future research in this complex domain.

Tailored-CuO-nanowire decorated with folic acid mediated coupling of the mitochondrial-ROS generation and miR425-PTEN axis in furnishing potent anti-cancer activity in human triple negative breast carcinoma cells.

Metal oxide nanoparticles are the forthcoming anti-tumor therapeutics and provide a versatile platform in the development of therapeutic approaches for drug-resistant cancers such as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Copper oxide nanoparticles have been characterized as anti-cancer agents but its toxicity has been a matter of concern. Herein, we have developed a targeted CuO Nanowire fabricated with Folic acid (CuO-Nw-FA) that enables enhanced cellular uptake in TNBC cells without imparting significant toxicity in normal cellular system. In the present study, we enumerated that CuO-Nw-FA caused mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in MDAMB-231 cells. Furthermore, CuO-Nw-FA mediated cytosolic retardation of NF-κB favoured inactivation of miR-425 and henceforth activated PTEN to induce apoptosis in TNBC cells. Simultaneously, CuO-Nw-FA also restricted the in-vitro cell migration through the miR-425/PTEN axis via pFAK. Studies extended to ex-ovo and in-vivo mice models further validated the efficacy of CuO-Nw-FA. Additionally, the accumulations of nanoparticles in tumor as well as different organs in mice were examined by in-vivo biodistribution and ex-vivo optical imaging studies. Thus our results cumulatively propose that CuO-Nw-FA cross-talks two distinct signalling pathways to induce apoptosis and retard migration in TNBC cells and raises the possibility for the use of CuO-Nw-FA as a potent anti-tumor agent.

Phenomenological characterization of semiholographic non-Fermi liquids.

We analyze some phenomenological implications of the most general semiholographic models for non-Fermi liquids that have emerged with inputs from the holographic correspondence. We find generalizations of Landau-Silin equations with few parameters governing thermodynamics, low-energy response, and collective excitations. We show that even when there is a Fermi surface with well-defined quasiparticle excitations, the collective excitations can behave very differently from Landau's theory.