The brain is a wonderful, mysterious thing: three pounds of soft gelatinous tissue through which we interact with the world, generate ideas and construct meaning and representation. Understanding where and how this happens has long been among neuroscience’s fundamental goals.

In recent years researchers have turned to artificial intelligence to make sense of brain activity as measured by fMRI, turning AI models on the data to understand, with increasing specificity, what people are thinking and what those thoughts look like in their brains.

An interdisciplinary team at UC Santa Barbara pushes those boundaries by applying deep learning to fMRI data to create complex reconstructions of what the study subjects saw.

“There are several projects that try to translate fMRI signals into images, mostly because neuroscientists want to understand how brains process visual information,” said Sikun Lin, the lead author of a paper that appeared in a recent NeurIPS conference in November 2022.

According to Lin, UCSB computer science professor Ambuj Singh and cognitive neuroscientist Thomas Sprague, the resulting images generated by this study are both photorealistic and accurately reflect the original “ground truth” images. They noted that previous reconstructions didn’t create images with the same level of fidelity.

Key to their approach is that in addition to images, a layer of information is added through textual descriptions, a move that Lin said was made to add data to train their deep learning model.

Building on a publicly available dataset, they used CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training) to encode objective, high-quality text descriptions that pair with the observed images, and then mapped the fMRI data of those observed images on to the CLIP space.

From there they used the output from the mapping models as conditions to train a generative model to reconstruct the image. The resulting reconstructions came remarkably close to the original images viewed by the subjects — closer, in fact, than any previous attempt to reconstruct images from fMRI data. Studies that have followed, including a notable one from Japan, have outlined methods for efficiently manipulating limited data into clear images.

“One of the main gists of this paper is that visual processes are inherently semantic,” Lin said. According to the paper, “the brain is naturally multimodal,” we use multiple modes of information at different levels to gain meaning from a visual scene, such as what is salient, or the relationships between objects in the scene.

“Using a visual representation only might make it more difficult to reconstruct the image,” Lin continued, “but using a semantic representation like CLIP that incorporates text such as the image’s description, is more coherent with how the brain processes information.”

“The science in this is whether the structure of the models can tell you something about how the brain works,” Singh added. “And that’s what we are hoping to try to find.”

In another experiment, for instance, the researchers found that the fMRI brain signals encoded a lot of redundant information — so much that even after masking more than 80% of the fMRI signal, the resulting 10–20% contained enough data to reconstruct an image within the same category as the original image, even though they didn’t feed any image information into the signal reconstruction pipeline (they were working solely from fMRI data).

“This work represents a true paradigm shift in the accuracy and clarity of image reconstruction methods,” Sprague said. “Previous work focused on extremely simplistic stimuli, because our modeling approaches were much simpler. Now, with these new image reconstruction methods in hand, we can advance our cognitive computational neuroscience experiments toward using naturalistic, realistic stimuli without sacrificing our ability to generate clear conclusions.”

At the moment, the reconstruction of brain data into “true” images continues to be labor intensive and out of reach of ordinary use, not to mention the fact that each model is specific to the person whose brain generated the fMRI data. But it doesn’t stop the researchers from musing on the implications of being able to decode what a person is thinking, right down to the layers of meaning that are hyper specific to each mind.

“What I find exciting about this project is whether it might be possible to preserve the cognitive state of a person, and see how these states so uniquely define them,” Singh said. According to Sprague, these methods would allow neuroscientists to conduct further studies measuring how brains change their representations of stimuli — including in representations of robust, complicated scenes — across task changes.

“This is a critical development that will answer fundamental questions about how brains represent information during dynamic cognitive tasks, including those requiring attention, memory and decision-making,” he said.

One of the areas they are now exploring is finding out what and how much is shared between brains so AI models can be constructed without having to start from zero each time.

“The underlying idea is that the human brain across many subjects share some hidden latent commonalities,” said Christos Zangos, a doctoral student researcher in Singh’s lab. “And based on those, currently I’m working on the exact same framework, but I’m trying to train with a different partition of the data set to see to what extent, using small amounts of data, we could build a model for a new subject.”

Source: UC Santa Barbara

The HP Officejet Pro 8600 is a multi-functional printer that boasts a range of useful features for both home and office environments. Its compact design allows for easy placement in limited spaces, making it an ideal choice for those with small offices or home workspaces.

The HP 8600 ink system is designed to handle high-volume printing tasks and features individual ink cartridges for each color, making it easy to only replace the colors that run out. This feature helps to reduce waste and keep costs down.

The printer also comes with a comprehensive software driver that provides users with a range of customization and optimization options. With support for Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, printing from a range of devices is made simple.

For those who frequently print, the HP 8600 printer ink system is a cost-effective solution. The HP Officejet Pro 8600 ink cartridges are readily available in both standard and high-yield options in from Smart Ink. Installing the cartridges is a straightforward process, making it a hassle-free experience.

The HP 8600 Officejet Pro manual is comprehensive and provides clear instructions for setting up, using, and maintaining the printer. It includes information on the HP 8600 ink cartridges, as well as how to replace them. This manual is an excellent resource for those who are new to the HP Officejet Pro 8600.

In the event that replacement HP Officejet Pro 8600 ink is needed, there are various options available. High-quality HP Officejet Pro 8600 replacement ink cartridges can be easily obtained and are designed to meet the same standards of performance and quality as the original cartridges.

In conclusion, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 is a reliable and efficient printer that provides a range of features and benefits for both personal and professional use. Its compact design, cost-effective ink system, and versatile connectivity options make it an excellent choice for those in need of a versatile printing solution.

Cloud edge environments are the points where devices connect to cloud services and are often the most vulnerable to security breaches, as they are exposed to a variety of threats, including unauthorized access, data leakage, and malware attacks. That’s why they need enhanced and reliable protection. G-Core Labs cloud edge environments’ protection is just what you need to provide multi-layered security, including access control, secure authentication, encryption, threat detection, and timely response.

The importance of protecting cloud environments

Securing cloud-edge environments is becoming increasingly important as more organizations use cloud services and apps, and the use of remote and mobile devices continues to grow. The protection ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of cloud resources and services and protects against evolving threats.

When do you need to take care of cloud edge environment protection?

Every organization that uses cloud services or apps requires similar protection. In particular, it is critical for government bodies, financial institutions, and the healthcare industry. Therefore, it is relevant wherever confidentiality, integrity, and availability of resources must be guaranteed.

How to organize such protection and keep the cloud under control?

Securing cloud-edge environments requires a multi-layered approach that involves a combination of security strategies, technologies, and best practices. G-Core Labs offers several protection steps:

1. Implementing access controls to limit access to cloud resources and services to only authorized users and devices. Access control can include measures like multifactor authentication, for example.
2. Using strong encryption that prevents unauthorized access and guarantees the confidentiality and integrity of data in the cloud.
3. Network segmentation for isolating sensitive data and resources from other parts of networks to limit the impact of a security breach and reduce the risk of threat migration.
4. Implementation of an intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPs).

Applying these and other technologies, G-Core Labs establishes a ‌reliable protection of cloud services and applications, using an individual approach and specific requirements in each case. The company’s specialists determine what security measures are necessary to protect your environment and offer the appropriate functions to ensure that your cloud is under your exclusive control.

The second batch of Kirpi armored personnel carriers manufactured by the Turkish company BMC has already arrived in Ukraine.

The news about the arrival of these combat vehicles was announced by the Ukrainian military on social networks.

The initial plan to supply 200 units of MRAP-class Kirpi armored vehicles was first announced in August 2022. In November 2022, Ukrainian soldiers were already operating the first 50 units.

The new arrival is a bit different from the previous one. The main difference is a remotely controlled combat module, instead of a manually-operated turret with a 12.7mm M2 Browning machine gun.

Defense Express noted that this remote-controlled combat module is ANUBIS, manufactured by the Romanian company Pro Optica S.A. This is an interesting development, because the standard version of Kirpi is equipped with a remote-controlled combat module SARP from the Turkish company Aselsan.

It is difficult to tell which combat module is better. But in any case, remote turrets like these offer much more safety to those who operate them.

Turkey usually prefers weapons manufactured by its domestic producers. Choosing a Romanian sub-contractor could have been motivated by the need to reduce short-term costs and increase the number of manufactured Kirpi vehicles.

For Ukraine, it is good news, because the Turkish armored combat vehicles have been delivered in the shortest possible time.

Kirpi and similar machines have already proven their value on the battlefield due to their ability to perform quick maneuvers as well as their exceptionally good level of protection that allows for saving the lives of troops.

A single Kirpi can accommodate 12 soldiers plus one driver. Its empty weight is 18 tons – most of this weight comes from protective armor. The car also has an automatic fire suppression system. Its maximum driving range reaches 1000km (620 miles) when driving at 60 km/h (37 mph).

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Explainer videos are becoming increasingly popular, but what exactly are they and how do they simplify complex concepts? Explainer videos provide a concise and engaging method of delivering information in response to the time constraints and impatience of today’s fast-paced world.

Explainer video agency is a powerful tool for businesses and organizations to communicate their message effectively. This article will discuss the importance of explainer videos in marketing strategies and how they can simplify complex ideas, showcase products or services, and entertain audiences.

Explainer videos can provide advantages for companies.

Businesses can capture potential customers’ attention with explainer videos. These videos are short, informative, and engaging, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. This article will outline the advantages of utilizing explainer videos for business purposes to stand out from competitors.

• Increase awareness of the brand. Explainer videos can be an effective tool for introducing a brand to potential customers. They offer an engaging and informative way to explain products or services, which can ultimately increase brand awareness and customer acquisition.

• Increase the rate of conversion. The use of explainer videos can have a positive effect on conversion rates. These videos provide potential customers with a thorough understanding of the advantages of your product or service, improving the likelihood of a purchase or other desired outcome.

• Increase visibility on search engines. Incorporating relevant keywords into your video title and description can enhance your search engine rankings, making it more probable for potential customers to find your video when searching for similar products or services.

• Increased Engagement on Social Media. Explainer videos are highly shareable, which makes them a great tool for increasing engagement on social media. By creating a video that is both informative and entertaining, you can encourage people to share your video with their friends and followers, which can help to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

• Establishing trustworthiness and credibility. Explainer videos can increase trust and credibility with potential customers by offering a clear explanation of your product or service and its benefits, establishing expertise in your industry and building trust with your audience.

What is an Explainer Video Agency?

Explainer videos are becoming an increasingly popular tool for companies to communicate complex ideas and products to their audiences. But what is an explainer video agency and how can it help your business? In this article, we’ll explore the world of video agencies, explaining how much does a promotional video cost, and their role in the digital marketing landscape.

An explainer video agency is a business that focuses on producing animated or live videos to clarify a product, service or concept. These videos aim to be interesting, educational and amusing and are commonly employed by corporations to publicize their brand, enhance sales and elevate customer involvement. Explainer videos are available in different styles such as whiteboard animation, motion graphics, and 3D animation. They can serve various purposes like product demonstrations, corporate training, and customer training.

An explainer video agency is composed of a group of creative professionals, such as scriptwriters, animators, illustrators, and voiceover artists. They collaborate to produce customized explainer videos that align with the unique requirements and objectives of their clientele. Partnering with an explainer video agency can benefit businesses seeking to produce impactful videos that effectively convey intricate concepts to their target audience. The agency can assist with various objectives, such as promoting new products, instructing customers, or training employees, allowing companies to differentiate themselves in the competitive digital landscape.

Some classical computers have error correction built into their memories based on bits; quantum computers will need error correction mechanisms, too, based on the vastly more sensitive qubits to be workable in the future.

Cornell researchers have recently taken a step toward fault-tolerant quantum computing: they constructed a simple model containing exotic particles called non-Abelian anyons, compact and practical enough to run on modern quantum hardware. Realizing these particles, which can only exist in two dimensions, is a move towards implementing it in the real world.

Thanks to some creative thinking, Yuri Lensky, a former Bethe/Wilkins/Kavli Institute at Cornell (KIC) postdoctoral fellow in physics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), collaborating with Eun-Ah Kim, professor of physics (A&S), came up with a simple “recipe” that could be used for robustly computing with non-Abelian anyons, including specific instructions for executing the effect experimentally on devices available today.

Their paper, “Graph Gauge Theory of Mobile Non-Abelian Anyons in a Qubit Stabilizer Code,” written in collaboration with theorists at Google Quantum AI, was published in the Annals of Physics.

Google Quantum AI researchers and Lensky and Kim have proved the theory with a successful experiment as reported in a preprint publication, “Observation of Non-Abelian Exchange Statistics on a Superconducting Processor,” on the research-sharing platform arXiv.

“This two-dimensional state is interesting both from a quantum condensed matter physics perspective – it has some novel properties that are very special to 2D physics – and from a quantum information perspective,” Lensky said.

“It’s something truly quantum, but it’s also potentially useful for quantum computation. It protects bits of quantum information by storing them non-locally, and our protocol allows us to compute with these bits.”

Kim explained the principle that animates non-Abelian anyons by holding out two identical one-pound barbells. When she crosses her arms, the identical barbells change positions, but as objects defined by classical physics, their state remains the same. They are interchangeable.

If those barbells represent two identical quantum particles, remarkably in certain 2D systems their trails through space-time can produce a measurable record of the change (picture the crossed arms.) This process of exchange is called a braid, after the shapes of the particle trails.

“Quantum mechanically, when you move one particle around the other,” Kim said, holding one weight still and moving the other in a circle around it, “the wave function, which is a solution to the Schrödinger equation describing quantum mechanical motion, can be multiplied by a phase factor or it can become something that’s very different.”

When the wave function gains a global sign that can only be observed through interferometry, a measurement of the interference of waves, that’s called an Abelian anyon. When the wave function becomes measurably different, it’s a non-Abelian anyon, she said.

Non-Abelian anyons could be harnessed to create qubits defined not on a single particle, but on a pair of identical quantum particles: nonlocally encoded.

“If I put the qubit shared between these particles in a zero state and move them apart, then whatever happens locally to one of these anyons, the zero state will remain. The qubit set to zero is safe from corruption,” Kim said. “Non-Abelian anyons could be used in a platform for protected qubits.”

But while physicists have theorized about these exotic particles for years – Alexei Kitaev proposed operating on protected bits of quantum memory by braiding non-Abelian anyons back around 2001, Lensky said – they have never been observed in a physical system before now.

When Google Quantum AI developed the quantum processor platform capabilities to realize the surface code and braiding of Abelian anyons in a physical system, Lensky said, “This was [our] inspiration to look for a way to realize the physics of non-Abelian anyons as soon as possible.”

“We knew they had the working ingredients, but they didn’t have a recipe,” Kim said. “We figured out how to move these non-Abelian anyons, then we told the experimentalists what to do. It was possible because Yuri and I were thinking in a flexible, creative and open-minded way.”

Past theoretical research identified non-Abelian properties, but came up short on how to move them, a necessary step. A key insight from Lensky and Kim was to give up the regularity of a grid and arrange qubits in an almost hand-drawn manner but backed up by robust mathematics.

“After this simple geometric insight, using gauge theory, we were able to come up with the protocol of taking this picture and implementing it on a chip in a robust and efficient way,” Kim said. “With this 10-qubit system, we were able to encode multiple non-Abelian anyons, and therefore multiple logical information-carrying qubits, and a precise recipe for what the experimentalists need to do every step of the way.”

“Although the focus of the theory and experiment is simply to realize non-Abelian anyons in the real world, this can also be viewed as a first small step towards implementing computation by braiding,” Lensky said.

Source: Cornell University

The basis of a successful business is information and skillful management. That is why it is so important for every company to use the obtained data. And data analytics allows companies to gain valuable insights that they can use to operate better. In today’s article, we will focus on what data analysis for businesses is.

Data analytics for business

Currently, many companies from various industries collect huge amounts of data. However, its raw form does not provide useful information. Businesses need data analytics to generate valuable results that they can then use to achieve their business goals.

Data analysis enables the introduction of further changes that have a huge impact on the future of the business. Its great advantage is the fact that companies can make decisions based on specific data and not on guesses. With data analytics, companies can better understand customer interests, predict future trends, or gain an advantage over competitors. The type of data collected depends on the purpose of its use. Companies can obtain it directly from customers or third parties.

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How to implement data analytics for your business

Implementing data analytics for business can be a complex process that involves several steps.

IDENTIFY BUSINESS GOALS

Before you start implementing data analytics, it’s important to identify your business goals. What do you want to achieve? What questions do you want to answer with data analytics? This will help you focus on the most relevant data and avoid getting lost in a sea of information.

COLLECT DATA

Once you have identified your business goals, you need to collect data. There are many sources of data, such as customer feedback, sales data, social media activity, and website analytics. Choose the data sources that are most relevant to your business goals.

CLEAN AND ORGANIZE DATA

Data can be messy and incomplete. Before you can analyze it, you need to clean and organize it. This involves removing duplicates, correcting errors, and filling in missing data.

ANALYZE DATA

Once your data is clean and organized, you can start analyzing it. There are many data analysis techniques, such as descriptive statistics, predictive modeling, and machine learning. Choose the techniques that are most relevant to your business goals.

INTERPRET AND VISUALIZE RESULTS

Data analysis can produce a lot of information. It’s important to interpret the results and visualize them in a way that makes sense to your stakeholders. This can involve creating charts, graphs, and dashboards that highlight key insights.

TAKE ACTION

Finally, use the insights gained from data analytics to take action. This might involve making changes to your business processes, launching new products, or improving customer service. Implementing data analytics is an iterative process. You may need to refine your business goals, collect more data, or adjust your analysis techniques based on the results you get. What is more, its implementation can be a challenge, so it is worth using data analytics consulting services. Specialists will support and help in this ongoing process.

Benefits of data analytics for business

Generally, there are many benefits of data analytics. Here are some of them:

IMPROVED DECISION-MAKING

As data analytics provides valuable insights into your business, it helps you make more informed decisions. Moreover, you can identify trends and patterns, as well as predict future demands.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY

Data analytics can help companies identify inefficiencies allowing them to optimize business processes. This can help you save time and money and improve overall business performance.

BETTER CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

With data analytics, you can gain deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences. This can help you identify opportunities to improve your products or services and personalize the customer experience.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Through data analytics, you can gain a competitive advantage. It is possible as you are able to recognize trends and opportunities earlier than your competitors. So, by analyzing data in real time, you can respond quickly to market changes and stay ahead of the competition.

COST SAVINGS

Data analytics enables businesses to identify areas where they can reduce costs. Companies can save money by optimizing their supply chain, improving inventory management, or reducing waste. Data analytics can help businesses of all sizes improve their performance and competitiveness. It provides insights that enable better decision-making, increased efficiency, and better customer engagement.

Conclusion – start benefiting from data analytics

Today, it would be difficult for companies to operate without data analysis. Of course, it is possible; however, data analytics offers many advantages. It allows them to make better decisions, gain an advantage over the competition or improve the customer experience. Hence, it enables businesses to remain competitive in today’s market. In a word, data analytics has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes.