Our understanding of the mechanism by which topological defects are formed in symmetry breaking phase transitions has recently changed. We examine the non-equilibrium dynamics of defect formation for weakly-coupled global O(N) theories possessing vortices (strings) and monopoles. It is seen that, as domains form and grow, defects are swept along on their boundaries at a density of about one def...

Many natural shapes have most of their characterizing features concentrated over a few regions in space. For example, humans and animals distinctive head shapes, while inorganic objects like chairs airplanes are made well-localized functional parts with specific geometric features. Often, these strongly correlated – modification facial traits quadruped should induce changes to the body structur...

Aims and Objectives: To investigate reliability and validity of the translated Norwegian version of the Family Sense of Coherence scale. Background: The Family Sense of Coherence scale measures the global sense of coherence in families and might help health professionals to identify vulnerable families and to facilitate the strengthening of coping strategies in families. Design: Cross-sectional...

We study inhibitory coherence (i.e., collective coherence by synaptic inhibition) in an ensemble of globally-coupled type-I neurons which can fire at arbitrarily low frequencies. No inhibitory coherence is observed in a homogeneous ensemble composed of only subthreshold neurons (which cannot fire spontaneously without noise). By increasing the fraction of (spontaneously firing) suprathreshold n...

Reduced global motion sensitivity, relative to global static form sensitivity, has been found in children with many neurodevelopmental disorders, leading to the "dorsal stream vulnerability" hypothesis (Braddick et al., 2003). Individual differences in typically developing children's global motion thresholds have been shown to be associated with variations in specific parietal cortical areas (B...

We describe a new framework for efficiently computing and storing global illumination effects for complex, animated environments. The new framework allows the rapid generation of sequences representing any arbitrary path in a "view space" within an environment in which both the viewer and objects move. The global illumination is stored as time sequences of range-images at base locations that sp...

We describe a new framework for efficiently computing and storing global illumination effects for complex, animated environments. The new framework allows the rapid generation of sequences representing any arbitrary path in a “view space” within an environment in which both the viewer and objects move. The global illumination is stored as time sequences of range-images at base locations that sp...

Despite intergovernmental calls for greater policy coherence to tackle rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs), there has been a striking lack of coherence internationally and nationally between trade and health sectors. In this commentary, I explore the arguments by Lenucha and Thow in relation to barriers for greater coherence for NCDs, apply them to regional trade ag...

How do people decide whether a stimulus contains a pattern? One possibility is that they rely on a global, non-specific signal of coherence. Interestingly, this signal might reflect a combination of different stimulus sources. Consequently, the coherence of one stimulus might influence decisions about coherence of a second, unrelated stimulus. We explored this possibility in three experiments i...