The Schema Theorem and Pricefs Theorem Lee Altenberg For example, consider a fitness function with a random distribution being the one-sided stable distri-bution of index 1/2 (Feller, 1971): $R(w)=2N(a/sqrt(w))-1$ where N is the Normal distribution and a is a scale parameter. This distribution is a way of generating needles in the haystackon all length scales. Feller, W. 1971. An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications. John Wiley and Sons, New York, page 27. google with pdf effective-search needle www.usenix.org/events/osdi04/tech/full_papers/whitaker/whitaker.pdf http://www.ccbb.pitt.edu/PDFs/Hagai8.pdf [pdf] "Optimal Mutation Rates for Genetic Search" ... wanted but not-yet -> ok 1: Laterality. 2001 Apr;6(2):149-64. Links Genes for left-handedness: how to search for the needle in the haystack?Van Agtmael T, Forrest SM, Williamson R. Murdoch Children's Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia. agtmaelt@cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au Although several genes that determine left-right asymmetry for structural syndromes such as situs inversus have been characterised in recent years (Supp, Witte, Potter, & Brueckner, 1997), there has been little progress in determining which genes or loci predispose to left-right handedness in humans. Linkage analysis has been used widely for the localisation of genes followed by their positional cloning. The complex genetics of handedness is one of the greatest problems for standard linkage analysis. Several genetic models have been proposed for the inheritance of handedness in humans. On the basis of these models, left-handedness can be considered a common single gene trait with a high gene frequency and a non-mendelian inheritance pattern. We report here a possible strategy, using these genetic models, that can be applied for the identification for genes determining handedness in humans. PMID: 15513167 [PubMed] --- September 10, 2004 Looking for a needle in a haystack or how to search the Internet (I said search, not find) We were listening to Mark & Brian this morning and they made brief reference to a new political satire ad making the rounds on the Internet involving a woman who starts out talking in a positive way about things in general and then descends into, well, they couldn't say anymore on the air but it sounded funny. Hey, I thought, I can find that no problem. I'm a librarian, after all. So I went to Google and tried a variety of searches: satirical TV ads, political satire, republican satire, you name it, I tried it. Don't get me wrong, I found a lot of good stuff: Bush or Chimp, a remix of the State of the Union address, and a funny story from The Onion. Then I started checking NetNewsWire for blog entries that might have mentioned it. Didn't find anything there either but I indirectly found a funny blog that then linked me to this. *sigh* Finally, I checked with the Mystical Smoking Head of Bob which said "without a doubt." So if anybody sees a new political satire video making the rounds on the Internet, please let me know!!! On a completely unrelated note, check out the new iMac G5. Macs rule, PCs drool! Posted by eileen at 12:04 PM in silly things we enjoy | Permalink another search with pdf searching for needle Tunable retina encoders for retina implants: why and how Rolf Eckmiller et al 2005 J. Neural Eng. 2 S91-S104 doi:10.1088/1741-2560/2/1/011 PDF (903 KB) | References | Articles citing this article Rolf Eckmiller, Dirk Neumann and Oliver Baruth Division of Neural Computation, Department of Computer Science, University of Bonn, 53117 Bonn, Germany Abstract. Current research towards retina implants for partial restoration of vision in blind humans with retinal degenerative dysfunctions focuses on implant and stimulation experiments and technologies. In contrast, our approach takes the availability of an epiretinal multi-electrode neural interface for granted and studies the conditions for successful joint information processing of both retinal prosthesis and brain. Our proposed learning retina encoder (RE) includes information processing modules to simulate the complex mapping operation of parts of the 5-layered neural retina and to provide an iterative, perception-based dialog between RE and human subject. Alternative information processing technologies in the learning RE are being described, which allow an individual optimization of the RE mapping operation by means of iterative tuning with learning algorithms in a dialog between implant wearing subject and RE. The primate visual system is modeled by a retina module (RM) composed of spatio-temporal (ST) filters and a central visual system module (VM). RM performs a mapping 1 of an optical pattern P1 in the physical domain onto a retinal output vector R1(t) in a neural domain, whereas VM performs a mapping 2 of R1(t) in a neural domain onto a visual percept P2 in the perceptual domain. Retinal ganglion cell properties represent non-invertible ST filters in RE, which generate ambiguous output signals. VM generates visual percepts only if the corresponding R1(t) is properly encoded, contains sufficient information, and can be disambiguated. Based on the learning RE and the proposed visual system model, a novel retina encoder (RE*) is proposed, which considers both ambiguity removal and miniature eye movements during fixation. Our simulation results suggest that VM requires miniature eye movements under control of the visual system to retrieve unambiguous patterns P2 corresponding to P1. For retina implant applications, RE* can be tuned to generate optimal ganglion cell codes for epiretinal stimulation. Print publication: Issue 1 (March 2005) Received 8 October 2004, accepted for publication 17 December 2004 Published 22 February 2005 PDF (903 KB) | References | Articles citing this articleFind related articles By author Rolf EckmillerDirk NeumannOliver Baruth IOP CrossRef Search Search highlighted text Article options E-mail this abstract Download citation Add to Filing Cabinet Create e-mail alerts Recommend this journal Authors & Referees Author services NEW Submit an article Track your article Referee services Submit referee report Science 22 April 2005: Vol. 308. no. 5721, pp. 503 - 504 DOI: 10.1126/science.1112616 Prev | Table of Contents | Next Perspectives NEUROSCIENCE: Watching Single Cells Pay Attention Jeremy M. Wolfe Visual search is a task that each of us rapidly and efficiently performs a thousand times a day, from searching for a coffee cup to looking for a face in a crowd. As a society, we have created many artificial and imperfect but critically important search tasks, such as airport baggage screening and routine mammography. In his Perspective, Wolfe discusses new work (Bichot et al.) that provides insights into how the primate brain performs complex visual search tasks, which might shed light on ways to improve the imperfect artificial search tasks on which we all depend. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The author is at the Visual Attention Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. E-mail: wolfe@search.bwh.harvard.edu The editors suggest the following related resources on Science sites: In Science Magazine Research Articles: Parallel and Serial Neural Mechanisms for Visual Search in Macaque Area V4 Narcisse P. Bichot, Andrew F. Rossi, and Robert Desimone Science 22 April 2005: 529-534 | Abstract ā | Full Text ā | PDF ā | Supporting Online Material ā