Barry E. Willner

Neural organization of the locomotive oscillator

We study the relation of neural development, organization, and activity to behavior. We provide a model of the locomotive oscillator, a neural system supplying alternating stimulation to extensor and flexor muscles creating an oscillatory motion. We propose a protocol by which this neural system starting from unstructured, unconnected neural populations develops structure and function. The protocol is studied by both computer simulation and mathematical analysis. Our main results are 1 The locomotive oscillator self-organizes and maintains its organization, assuming certain properties of the neural populations. 2 Imperfections disturbing the functional adequacy of the neural populations may lead to the deterioration and disappearance of the oscillatory behavior. 3 The locomotive oscillator may fail to organize if the development is not staged in time.

Extrema of functions of eigenvalues

Abstract We consider the question of finding an extreme value for some function of the eigenvalues of the differential equation y ″ + λφ ( x ) y = 0, y (0) = y (1) = 0, as φ ( x ) varies over a region in a function space. A characterization of the φ ( x ) at which the function of the eigenvalues achieves its extremum is derived.

Design of a document filing and retrieval system

This paper describes a scheme for secondary-key-based data retrieval. The scheme is designed for a document filing and retrieval system in which documents are filed under a large number of keys, but queries specify only a few keys. As this work is based on microcomputers with virtual memory, the primary objective was minimization of page faults, with processing speed and simplicity of code also of critical importance. Initial experiments with the scheme indicate good performance with respect to both processing time and paging.

Self-organization of an oscillatory neural system

Hebbian dynamics is used to derive the differential equations for the synaptic strengths in the neural circuitry of the locomotive oscillator. Initially, neural connection are random. Under a specified arborization hypothesis relating to the density of neural connections, the differential equations are shown to model the self-organization and the stability of the oscillator.

Large scale multimedia and interactive television

Summary form only given, as follows. The confluence of social and technological readiness signals that the widespread use of a new technology is coming. New developments, both technical and business, regarding the digital highway, networked multimedia and interactive TV are reported everyday. This field is both a large driver and consumer of technology. Large scale multimedia and interactive TV will provide personal interactive access to vast quantities of information in video and multimedia forms. The end user will have available many exciting applications for use in entertainment, education, and business. End to end systems comprised of electronic repositories, high speed networks, TVs, PCs, and other personal devices will be integrated. These systems depend on a variety of new technologies that are just now emerging. The author focuses on applications, end to end systems and the various new technologies. In particular he discusses the following applications; video on demand, near video on demand, home shopping, education in school and home, training, manufacturing, and marketing. The following technologies are also discussed; large, scalable servers, ATM networking, RF modem technologies (QAM and VSB), ADSL, MPEG compression and transport.<<ETX>>