National Research University – Higher School of Economics

About: National Research University – Higher School of Economics is a education organization based out in Moscow, Russia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Computer science. The organization has 12873 authors who have published 23376 publications receiving 256396 citations.

Studies on flavins in organic solvents — iii. spectral behaviour of lumiflavin

Abstract: — The absorption and fluorescence emission spectra of lumiflavin have been studied in nonaqueous solvents of different polarity. The corrected emission spectra show apparent mirror symmetry to the longest wavelength absorption maximum. In view of high molar extinction coefficient of the longest wavelength maximum in absorption spectra, constant polarization of fluorescence across it in dioxane and high values of quantum yields of Buorescence, ττ* character of corresponding electronic transition was proposed. Roughly linear correlation was found between transition energies and quantum yields of fluorescence on the one hand, and polarity of solvents expressed in Kosower's ‘Z’ values (excepting acetic acid) on the other. In preliminary experiments it was found that lumiflavin in dioxane and in acetic acid is strongly photodecomposed by the monochromatic(436 nm) light.

Inverse Stochastic Resonance in Cerebellar Purkinje Cells.

Abstract: Purkinje neurons play an important role in cerebellar computation since their axons are the only projection from the cerebellar cortex to deeper cerebellar structures. They have complex internal dynamics, which allow them to fire spontaneously, display bistability, and also to be involved in network phenomena such as high frequency oscillations and travelling waves. Purkinje cells exhibit type II excitability, which can be revealed by a discontinuity in their f-I curves. We show that this excitability mechanism allows Purkinje cells to be efficiently inhibited by noise of a particular variance, a phenomenon known as inverse stochastic resonance (ISR). While ISR has been described in theoretical models of single neurons, here we provide the first experimental evidence for this effect. We find that an adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire model fitted to the basic Purkinje cell characteristics using a modified dynamic IV method displays ISR and bistability between the resting state and a repetitive activity limit cycle. ISR allows the Purkinje cell to operate in different functional regimes: the all-or-none toggle or the linear filter mode, depending on the variance of the synaptic input. We propose that synaptic noise allows Purkinje cells to quickly switch between these functional regimes. Using mutual information analysis, we demonstrate that ISR can lead to a locally optimal information transfer between the input and output spike train of the Purkinje cell. These results provide the first experimental evidence for ISR and suggest a functional role for ISR in cerebellar information processing.

On the Monge–Kantorovich problem with additional linear constraints

Abstract: The Monge–Kantorovich problem with the following additional constraint is considered: the admissible transportation plan must become zero on a fixed subspace of functions. Different subspaces give rise to different additional conditions on transportation plans. The main results are stated in general form and can be carried over to a number of important special cases. They are also valid for the Monge–Kantorovich problem whose solution is sought for the class of invariant or martingale measures. We formulate and prove a criterion for the existence of an optimal solution, a duality assertion of Kantorovich type, and a necessary geometric condition on the support of the optimal measure similar to the standard condition for c-monotonicity.

Favourable modules: Filtrations, polytopes, Newton-Okounkov bodies and flat degenerations

Abstract: We introduce the notion of a favourable module for a complex unipotent algebraic group, whose properties are governed by the combinatorics of an associated polytope. We describe two filtrations of the module, one given by the total degree on the PBW basis of the corresponding Lie algebra, the other by fixing a homogeneous monomial order on the PBW basis. In the favourable case a basis of the module is parameterized by the lattice points of a normal polytope. The filtrations induce flat degenerations of the corresponding flag variety to its abelianized version and to a toric variety, the special fibres of the degenerations being projectively normal and arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay. The polytope itself can be recovered as a Newton-Okounkov body. We conclude the paper by giving classes of examples for favourable modules.