Bicuculline and picrotoxin block γ-aminobutryic acid-gated Cl− conductance by different mechanisms

Summary Using isolated, internally perfused bullfrog dorsal root ganglion cells we have studied the dose-response curves for -aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the presence of internally or externally applied GABA antagonists. With external application of antagonists the inhibition of the GABA current by bicuculline was competitive and that by picrotoxin was noncompetitive. Picrotoxin but not bicuculline blocked when internally perfused.To whom reprint requests should be addressed.Acknowledgments. We thank Drs S. Minakami and S. Yasui for helpful discussions and comments.     

Quantitative genetic models of sexual selection

Summary Quantitative genetic models of sexual selection have disporven some of the central tenets of both the handicap mechanism and the sexy son hypothesis. These results suggest that the good genes approach to sexual selection may generally lead to erroneous results.Runaway sexual selection seems possible under a wide variety of circumstances. Quantittive genetic models have revealed runaway processes for sexually selected attributes expressed in both sexes and for attributes of parental care. Furthermore, the runaway could occur simultaneously in a series of populations that straddle an environmental gradient. While the models support the feasibility of runaway processes, empirical studies are needed to evaluate whether runaways actually happen. Estimates of critical genetic parameters are particularly needed, as well as measures of natural and sexual selection acting on the same population.The models also show that sexual selection has tremendous potential to produce population differentiation, particularly in epigamic traits. Differentiation is promoted by indeterminancy of evolutionary outcome, transient differences among populations during the final slow approach to equilibrium, sampling drift among equilibrium populations, and the tendency of sexual selection to amplify geographic variation arising from spatial differences in natural selection. Recent work with two- and three-locus models of sexual selection has produced results that parallel the results of the polygenic models^36–38,58. Thus the feature of indeterminate equilibria (outcome dependent on initial conditions) is common to both types of model.     

A new semisynthetic ergot peptide alkaloid: DCN 203-922

Summary We report the synthesis, stereochemistry and preliminary pharmacological evaluation of DCN 203-922, a novel ergot alkaloid of the cyclol type, which contains in its peptide moiety the uncommon amino acid L-allo-isoleucine.Part of this paper was reported by this author at the Herbstversammlung der Schweizerischen Chemischen Gesellschaft, Bern, in October 1986.     

A major metabolite of Δ1-tetrahydrocannabinol reduces its cataleptic effect in mice

Summary The results described here demonstrate that THC-induced catalepsy in mice can be substantially inhibited by the prior administration of ¹-THC-7-oic acid, the major metabolite of THC in most species including humans. This raises the possibility that the intensity and duration of action of THC may depend to a large degree on the levels of this metabolite at the sites of action.We thank the National Institute on Drug Abuse for supporting this project by grants DA-02043 and DA-02052 and for supplying all of the cannabinoids. One of us (S.B.) is also the recipient of a Research Scientist Award from NIDA. We are grateful to Kristen Carlson and Thomas Honeyman for helpful suggestions in preparing this report.     

Learning attention-based strategies to cooperate for multi-agent path finding

Multi-agent path finding (MAPF) is a challenging multi-agent systems problem where all agents are required to effectively reach their goals concurrently with not colliding with each other and avoiding obstacles. In MAPF, it is a challenge to effectively express the observation of agents, utilize historical information, and effectively communicate with neighbor agents. To tackle these issues, in this work, we proposed a well-designed model that utilizes the local states of nearby agents and outputs an optimal action for each agent to execute. We build the local observation encoder by using residual attention CNN to extract local observations and use the Transformer architecture to build an interaction layer to combine local observations of agents. With the purpose of overcoming the deficiency of success rate, we also designed a new evaluation index, namely extra time rate (ETR). The experimental results show that our model is superior to most previous models in terms of success rate and ETR. In addition, we also completed the ablation study on the model, and the effectiveness of each component of the model was proved.     

基于深度学习的红外与可见光图像融合综述

图像融合技术是指从不同的源图像中提取并融合互补的信息,生成一幅信息量更丰富、对后续高级视觉任务提供足够支持的图像.红外与可见光图像融合（Infrared and Visible Image Fusion,IVIF）是图像融合领域的一个重要分支.近年来,深度学习技术在视觉计算领域表现出了良好的性能,尤其是基于自编码器、卷积神经网络、生成对抗网络等几种基于深度学习的IVIF技术得到了蓬勃发展.为此,对基于深度学习的IVIF算法的方法、数据集和评估指标等进行了总结和阐述;通过大量的实验,进行定性和定量的结果分析,对比了各类基于深度学习IVIF算法的性能;最后,讨论了该领域未来发展的一些前景和研究方向.     

基于量子微粒群优化算法的半透明介质光学参数反演

针对半透明介质光学参数估计问题,建立了脉冲激光辐照下半透明介质光学参数反演模型,采用量子微粒群优化(QPSO)算法反演了折射率和吸收系数,分析了测量误差、热物性参数对反演结果的影响,并利用敏感性分析揭示了反演精度与测量误差的关系.计算结果表明：建立的反演模型和采用的QPSO算法可以精确估计折射率和吸收系数,即使人为添加10%的测量误差,反演结果依然具有较强的鲁棒性和准确度.本研究可为半透明介质物性参数获取提供技术参考.     

不确定车辆电子稳定控制系统传感器故障估计

针对车辆横摆角速度传感器故障问题,提出一种基于观测器的故障估计策略.首先,考虑由于轮胎侧偏刚度特性造成的不确定性以及系统中存在非线性干扰等因素,建立车辆四轮转向系统数学模型.然后,设计基于观测器的传感器故障估计策略,利用李雅普诺夫函数和线性矩阵不等式方法求解观测器增益.最后,通过Carsim与Simulink联合仿真验证所设计的传感器故障诊断策略的有效性.结果表明：在传感器发生故障时,该诊断策略能够对系统状态以及传感器故障具有良好的估计效果,能够为车辆安全稳定系统提供关键信息,并且对于下一步的传感器故障容错控制提供技术支持.     

具有优先级的深度确定性策略梯度算法在自动驾驶中的应用

深度确定性策略梯度(deep deterministic policy gradient,DDPG)算法在自动驾驶领域中应用广泛,但DDPG算法因采用均匀采样而导致低效率策略比例较高、训练效率低、收敛速度慢等.提出了基于优先级的深度确定性策略梯度(priority-based DDPD,P-DDPG)算法,通过优先级采样代替均匀采样来提升采样利用率、改善探索策略和提高神经网络训练效率,并且提出新的奖励函数作为评价标准.最后,在开源赛车模拟(The Open Racing Car Simulator,TORCS)平台上对P-DDPG算法的性能进行了测试,结果表明相对于DDPG算法,P-DDPG算法的累积奖励在25回合之后就有明显提升而DDPG在100回合之后训练效果才逐渐显现,提升约4倍.P-DDPG算法不仅训练效率提升且收敛速度加快.