Microscopic folds and macroscopic jerks in compressed lipid monolayers

We report hitherto unrecognized cooperative behavior in the stochastic collapse of certain compressed lipid monolayers implicated in pulmonary function. The cooperativity emerges from a statistical analysis of the collapse events captured using fluorescence microscopy and digital image analysis. The collapse events involve folding of the monolayer on a micron scale, yet each event produces a macroscopic jerk of the layer. The cooperative collapse is striking for its temporal sharpness and large spatial extent.     

Time-invariant person-specific frequency templates in human brain activity

The various human brain tasks are performed at different locations and time scales. Yet, we discovered the existence of time-invariant (above an essential time scale) partitioning of the brain activity into personal state-specific frequency bands. For that, we perform temporal and ensemble averaging of best wavelet packet bases from multielectrode electroencephalogram recordings. These personal frequency bands provide new templates for quantitative analyses of brain function, e.g., normal versus epileptic activity.     

Mind Stuffed with Red Herrings: Why William James’ Critique of the Mind-Stuff Theory Does not Substantiate a Combination Problem for Panpsychism

There is a famous passage in chapter six of James’ Principles of Psychology whose import, many believe, deals a devastating blow to the explanatory aspirations of panpsychism. In the present paper I take a close look at James’ argument, as well as at the claim that it underlies a powerful critique of panpsychism. Apart from the fact that the argument was never aimed at panpsychism as such, I show that it rests on highly problematic assumptions which, if followed to their logical consequences, are just as inedible to contemporary critics of panpsychism as they are to its present-day supporters. Hence, a naïve employment of the argument, as a critique leveled by physicalists against panpsychism, is counterproductive and even self-defeating. After examining the metaphysical shortcomings undermining James’ position (as well as the hasty “refutations” of panpsychism based on it), I conclude with some reflections on what needs to be done in order to obtain a better perspective regarding the explanatory prospects of panpsychism as an alternative approach to mainstream physicalism in the study of conscious phenomena.     

Plasma dynamics and its relationship with thin film properties of CdTe via pulsed laser deposition (PLD)

2 range). From this data, various emitting species were identified at different regions of the expanding plasma. Plasma temperatures were inferred from the continuous broad background. The velocity of one of the emitting species was calculated from time resolved data. The grown films were characterised by AES and XRD. The role of cadmium is shown to be most important considering the relationship between the plasma emission and the resulting film properties. Received: 16 May 1997/Revised version: 29 September 1997     

Swelling kinetics of the onion phase

A theory is presented for the behavior of an array of multi-lamellar vesicles (the onion phase) upon addition of solvent. A unique feature of this system is the possibility to sustain pressure gradients by tension in the lamellae. Tension enables the onions to remain stable beyond the unbinding point of a flat lamellar stack. The model accounts for various concentration profiles and interfaces developing in the onion as it swells. In particular, densely packed “onion cores” are shown to appear, as observed in experiments. The formation of interfaces and onion cores may represent an unusual example of stabilization of curved interfaces in confined geometry. Received 6 September 2000     

Observation of the Goldanskii effect over a wide temperature range

The Goldanskii effect was observed in the recoilless absorption spectra of the 21.6 KeV gamma ray of ¹⁵¹Eu in Eu₂Ti₂O₇ between 4 and 900 K. Full agreement between the Goldanskii theory and the experimental spectra was obtained throughout the whole temperature range.     

Self-regulated complexity in cultured neuronal networks

New quantified observables of complexity are identified and utilized to study sequences (time series) recorded during the spontaneous activity of different size cultured networks. The sequence is mapped into a tiled time-frequency domain that maximizes the information about local time-frequency resolutions. The sequence regularity is associated with the domain homogeneity and its complexity with its local and global variations. Shuffling the recorded sequence lowers its complexity down to artificially constructed ones. The new observables are utilized to identify self-regulation motifs in observed complex network activity.