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how do I record events emitted by "sinusoidal_poisson_generator"
by thierry nieus 03 Jan '22

03 Jan '22

Dear all, first of all, happy new year! I am using nest 2.2 (installed by conda) and I have set up a simple network of 20-100 neurons based on the ht_neuron model. I am delivering some noise to all neurons with the sinusoidal_poisson_generator (I can switch to another) and the simulation produces the results I am looking for. However I would like now to have a look at the spikes entering the network and therefore I need to access all events generated by the random generator. A sample of my code is: import nest receptors=nest.GetDefaults('ht_neuron')['receptor_types'] nest.CopyModel("sinusoidal_poisson_generator",'sin_pois',{'amplitude':50.,'rate':15.0 }) nest.CopyModel("static_synapse","AMPAnoise",{"receptor_type":receptors["AMPA"],"weight":10. }) neurons=nest.Create("ht_neuron",1) noise=nest.Create('sin_pois',1) g = nest.Create('sin_pois', 1) # current pulse dc_gen = nest.Create("dc_generator") nest.SetStatus(dc_gen, {"amplitude": 20., "start": 400, "stop": 1050}) nest.Connect(dc_gen, neurons, 'one_to_one') # recorders detect_noise = nest.Create('spike_detector', 1) nest.Connect(noise, neurons, 'one_to_one', syn_spec="AMPAnoise") nest.Connect(noise, detect_noise, 'one_to_one') ''' the latest does not work Creation of connection is not possible because: All outgoing connections from a device must use the same synapse type. ''' Is there a way to record those spikes ? Thanks in advance for any help Best

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Thank you for 2021!
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Dear NEST Users and Developers! I would like to thank you all for your engagement for high-quality computational neuroscience and research software in 2021. We have made some major steps forward with the release of NEST 3, NEST Desktop 3 and NESTML 4. A few days ago, PyNN 0.10 also brought support for NEST 3, nicely wrapping up the year of NEST 3. We also moved to quarterly releases with the release of NEST 3.0. If you wonder what happened to NEST 3.2 in that scheme of things don't worry, it will come in Januar. The combination of holiday season, new COVID restrictions and an important reporting deadline in the Human Brain Project—the major source of funding for NEST development in recent years—unfortunately left too little time to wrap everything up in time. 2022 promises to be an exciting year for NEST, including the deeper integration of NEST Desktop (so far mainly developed by Sebastian Spreizer) and NEST GPU (so far mainly developed by Bruno Golosio as NeuronGPU) into the NEST development process and community. Don't forget to block out 23/24 June in your calendars for the NEST Conference 2022 (this time on a Thursday and Friday)! On behalf of the NEST Initiative, I wish you happy holidays and all the best for 2022! Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Call for Papers: WOIV'22: 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization
by Tom Vierjahn 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Hi all, we will organise another edition of the in situ visualization workshop (https://woiv.gitlab.io) at ISC (https://isc-hpc.com). If you are working on visualizing results of neural simulations while these are still running, you might want to consider submitting your work to the workshop … Please find the CfP below. Cheers, Tom ----- # WOIV'22: 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization * Held in conjunction with ISC 2022 * Hamburg, Germany, June 2, 2022 ## Scope Large-scale HPC simulations with their inherent I/O bottleneck have made in situ visualization an essential approach for data analysis, although the idea of in situ visualization dates back to the golden era of coprocessing in the 1990s. In situ coupling of analysis and visualization to a live simulation circumvents writing raw data to disk for post-mortem analysis – an approach that is already inefficient for today’s very large simulation codes. Instead, with in situ visualization, data abstracts are generated that provide a much higher level of expressiveness per byte. Therefore, more details can be computed and stored for later analysis, providing more insight than traditional methods. We encourage contributed talks on methods and workflows that have been used for large-scale parallel visualization, with a particular focus on the in situ case. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail if and how the application drove abstractions or other kinds of data reductions and how these interacted with the expressiveness and flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail frameworks used and data reductions applied. They should also indicate how these impacted the flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Of particular interest to WOIV and its attendees are recent developments for in situ libraries and software. Submissions documenting recent additions to existing in situ software or new in situ platforms are highly encouraged. WOIV is an excellent place to connect providers of in situ solutions with potential customers. For the submissions we are not only looking for success stories, but are also particularly interested in those experiments that started with a certain goal or idea in mind, but later got shattered by reality or insufficient hardware/software. Areas of interest for WOIV include, but are not limited to: * Techniques and paradigms for in situ visualization. * Algorithms relevant to in situ visualization. These could include algorithms empowered by in situ visualization or algorithms that overcome limitations of in situ visualization. * Systems and software implementing in situ visualization. These include both general purpose and bespoke implementations. This also includes updates to existing software as well as new software. * Workflow management. * Use of in situ visualization for application science or other examples of using in situ visualization. * Performance studies of in situ systems. Comparisons between in situ systems or techniques or comparisons between in situ and alternatives (such as post hoc) are particularly encouraged. * The impact of hardware changes on in situ visualization. * The online visualization of experimental data. * Reports of in situ visualization failures. * Emerging issues with in situ visualization. ## Submissions We accept submissions of short papers (6 to 8 pages) and full papers (10 to 12 pages) in Springer single column LNCS style. Please find LaTeX and Word templates at https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template. Submissions are exclusively handled via EasyChair: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit. The review process is single or double blind, we leave it to the discretion of the authors whether they want to disclose their identity in their submissions. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field, and will be evaluated according to relevance to the workshop theme, technical soundness, thoroughness of success/failure comparison, and impactfulness of method/results. Accepted papers will appear as post-conference workshop proceedings in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. The submitted versions will be made available to workshop participants during ISC. ## Important Dates * Submission deadline: February 13, 2022, anywhere on earth * Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2022 * Final presentation slides due: May 10, 2012, anywhere on earth (subject to change) * Workshop: June 2, 2022 * Camera-ready version due: July 1, 2022 (subject to change, extrapolated from previous years) ## Chairs * Peter Messmer, NVIDIA * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Steering Committee * Steffen Frey, University of Groningen, The Netherlands * Kenneth Moreland, Sandia National Labs, USA * Thomas Theussl, KAUST, Saudi Arabia * Guido Reina, University of Stuttgart, Germany * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Website, Venue, Registration * Website: https://woiv.gitlab.io * Submission system: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit * Template: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template * Venue: https://www.isc-hpc.com (ISC 2022) * Workshop registration: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/register ## Contact E-Mail: woiv(a)googlegroups.com

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday December 20 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Jochen Martin Eppler 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday December 20, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-12-20-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Jochen Martin Eppler! ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4 -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49(2461)61-96653 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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NESTML: neuron/synapse model with differential dynamics for computing post synaptic currents
by barthelemy 16 Dec '21

16 Dec '21

Dear all, I am a new NEST user. I have a question concerning the range of neuron/synapses model possibilities of NEST. I would like to implement my own neuron/synapse model with NESTML, but I am unsure that it would be possible. Indeed, in my model, synaptic currents are not only relying on pre-synaptic spikes. To compute synaptic currents, the opening probability of pre-synaptic channel receptors are required. Those pre-synaptic channel receptors opening probabilities are evolving according to differential equations involving second order dynamics, with specific decays and taking into account the pre-synaptic spikes arrivals times at this specific synapse. Those differential equations for the opening probabilities are relying on different parameters, according to the neurotransmitter type (GABA A,GABA B, NMDA, AMPA ). Furthermore, additionally to the input spikes and the pre-synaptic channel receptors opening probabilities, the current membrane potential of the post-synaptic neuron is also required to compute the synaptic currents. Do you know if one of the NEST models implement similar dynamics? Is it possible to compute such synaptic dynamics with NESTML by creating a synapse or (and) a neuron model? Or is it not, due to specific limitations? Thank you, Best regards, JB

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NEST Developers — Failing macOS checks solved
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 08 Dec '21

08 Dec '21

Dear NEST Developers, You may have observed that Github checks failed on macOS in recent days. This is due to even more pedantic checking of standard compliance by the newest version of Clang. The issue is fixed in master now (#2231), so if you experience trouble with failing macOS tests, you should update your branch. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Set 'grng' seed
by Benedikt Feldotto 06 Dec '21

06 Dec '21

Dear all, in a previous version of NEST I used to set the RNG seeds like this: nest.SetKernelStatus({'grng_seed' : value_grngseed}) nest.SetKernelStatus({'rng_seeds' : value_rngseed)}) I already found in newer NEST versions I can set the RNG seed like: nest.rng_seed = value_rngseed Is there also a possibility to set the Global RNG seed 'grng' with newer NEST versions? Thanks! Benedikt -- Benedikt Feldotto M.Sc. Research Assistant Human Brain Project - Neurorobotics Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems Room HB 2.02.20 Parkring 13 D-85748 Garching b. München Tel.: +49 89 289 17628 Mail: feldotto(a)in.tum.de https://www6.in.tum.de/en/people/benedikt-feldotto-msc/ www.neurorobotics.net

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 6 December 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 06 Dec '21

06 Dec '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 06 December, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-12-06-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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NEST v3.1: Missing data for spike_recorder (ascii)
by Maryada Maryada 30 Nov '21

30 Nov '21

Dear NEST users, I am trying to debug my network and I found that my spike_recorder with *ascii* option isn't working as expected. I am simulating a network for a few milliseconds (say 1000. ms) and then do some structure changes and then re-run for another phase of a few ms (say 4000. ms) In the compact version, I am trying to see how this sample code would work. import nest nest.ResetKernel() nest.SetKernelStatus({ "overwrite_files": True, "data_path": './Debug-Log', "data_prefix": 'DEBUG-SPIKE-REC', }) noise_device = nest.Create("poisson_generator",params={'start': 0.,'rate' : 100.}) sd_params = { "record_to": 'ascii', "label": "Input_spike_recorder" } Input_SD = nest.Create("spike_recorder",1, params=sd_params) nest.Connect(noise_device,Input_SD) nest.Simulate(100.) # do something here nest.Simulate(100.) *Issue:* I only get the data recorded from 100th millisecond but for memory, I get all the data from 0-200 ms. This behavior is consistent for both overwrite_files as True and False. In the previous version (v2.20) I also used the same approach and had no issues. Is there a newer way to do such a simulation paradigm? I didn't find anything on this on the comparison page of NESTv2.x and NESTv3.x Am I missing something? It's really important for my work, I hope I could find a solution. -- Thanks and Regards *Maryada*

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FitzHugh-Nagumo model in Nest simulator
by s.taffara92＠gmail.com 29 Nov '21

29 Nov '21

Hi, I visited the page 'https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/models/' looking for the FitzHugh-Nagumo model keyword. I want to use it to create this kind of neuron in Nest. I can not find it. Can anyone help me? Thanks, Salvo

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Random seed in NEST 3.0
by Maryada Maryada 26 Nov '21

26 Nov '21

Dear NEST users, As I understood from the documentation unless you set the seed using nest.rng_seed, nest.random.normal (for instance) should return the same value nest.ResetKernel() nest.rng_seed = 21#69696 v_m = nest.random.normal(mean=-51., std=10.) v_m.GetValue() In this code, I always receive the same v_m value for both cases, if the seed is set as 21 or 69696. The only time it changes is if I remove ResetKernel() call, which then is expected to return different values irrespective of rng_seed. With this code below, I also got the same results irrespective of rng_seed value nest.ResetKernel() nest.rng_seed = 3333#69696 for _ in range(10): v_m = nest.random.normal(mean=-51., std=10.) print(v_m.GetValue()) So, maybe rng_seed doesn't reflect on nest.random.normal distribution. However, then how can I make sure it draws a different set of values? -- Thanks and Regards *Maryada*

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Izhikevich Simulation
by Allen Rabayda 22 Nov '21

22 Nov '21

Dear Nest Users, Has anyone used any NEST Synapse Models to create Gamma Rhythms during a simulation with the NEST Izhikevich Neuron model? My simulation, which uses the Stdp-Synapse model (additive type) does not appear to be converging into gamma rhythms (w/bi-model wt distribution) using super-threshold poisson point process (ref: Polychronization Computation With Spikes (Izhikevich, 2006), - DOI: 10.1162/089976606775093882 <https://doi.org/10.1162/089976606775093882>) - - - - Thanks for any suggestions, Best Regards, --Allen

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 22 November 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 22 Nov '21

22 Nov '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 22 November, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-11-22-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Call for Papers: Reproducibility in Neuroscience
by Alberto Antonietti 19 Nov '21

19 Nov '21

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Installation procedure of NEST on M1 mac
by Julien Ballbé 18 Nov '21

18 Nov '21

Dear Madam, Dear Sir As a starting doctoral student in the field of computational neurosciences, I am particularly interested in using NEST in my research works. However, I am a bit confused about the procedure to install NEST on a M1 macbook pro, therefore, I prefer to ask you before doing anything. From what I understood from your website here are the steps that, I suppose, I should do to install NEST properly: - as I use a M1MAX Mac (MacOS 12.0) , I can't just install nest, I have to build it. To do so: - Download Miniforge for arm64 (from which I will be able to use Conda right?) - Install Python 3.9.4 for arm Mac macOS 64-bit universal2 installer <https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.8/python-3.9.8-macos11.pkg> - Download the nest source code directly from github ( https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator) - Create a conda environment using the following command conda env create -f extras/conda-nest-simulator-dev.yml - Activate this environment ( conda activate...) - Create a build directory outside the NEST source and go into it - Install cmake package using conda ( conda install -c anaconda cmake) - Configure NEST by running: cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=<nest_install_dir> <nest_source_dir> - Once done I can run make. make install. make installcheck Here are my questions: - Is this installation procedure correct? - Once installed, how can I launch NEST from a python interpreter such as Spyder? Or is it only possible to launch it within a terminal window? - I am quite new to managing packages, so correct me if I am wrong, but have I to install everything using exclusively Conda ? - What is the purpose of creating a new environment to build NEST -Is there anything I missed or misunderstood? I realize how many questions I ask you, and I am very grateful for every advice you could give me. If it is more convenient for you, we can have a phone call when you want. -- *Julien BALLBÉ Y SABATÉ* *Étudiant en thèse - PhD student* *Neurophysiology of Visual Computation* Centre Giovanni Borelli - CNRS UMR 9010 Université de Paris 45 rue des Saint-Pères, 75006 Paris, France Tel: +33 6 79 03 40 35

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[NEST 3.1] autapses/multapses switch for structural plasticity
by Aadhar Sharma 17 Nov '21

17 Nov '21

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NESTML's versioning policy
by Robin Gilbert De Schepper 16 Nov '21

16 Nov '21

Hi all, I was wondering what NESTML's versioning scheme looks like, and what versions of NEST each NESTML version supports! e.g. can I generate code for multiple NEST versions with 1 NESTML version? Best regards, -- Robin De Schepper, MSc Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences Unit of Neurophysiology University of Pavia, Italy Via Forlanini 6, 27100 Pavia - Italy Tel: (+39) 038298-7607 http://www-5.unipv.it/dangelo/ Interested in network modelling? Discover our framework <https://github.com/dbbs-lab/bsb>: <https://github.com/dbbs-lab/bsb>

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New Izhikevich neuron model; nest_names and synapse dynamics
by Nina Doorn 15 Nov '21

15 Nov '21

Good afternoon, I have adapted the current nest izhikevich neuron model in C++ to obtain a more general izhikevich neuron where more parameters can be set (for example voltage shifts and the membrane capacitance), and the b-parameter can change over time according to some condition, such that also thalamic neurons can be simulated. The new extension module works very well (with much thanks to all earlier help regarding installing extension modules). So hopefully people can eventually, with this model, obtain all the kinds of neurons that Izhikevich describes. As soon as everything is cleaned up and finished, I will upload the code to github. However, before I do that, I have two questions: 1. For the new parameters I added to the existing izhikevich model, I could only use parameter names that are in nest::names. However, for generality and to make it easy to use, I thought it would be better to use the same symbols that Izhikevich uses to describe his model. That way, people can easily replicate all the different types of neurons that Izhikevich describes. He uses these parameters: [image: image.png] Is it possible to include these parameters in the neuron model? Or is it better to just replace them with other parameter names that are already in the nest_names file? 2. The current izhikevich neuron model doesn't model realistic synapses. The membrane potential just jumps on each spike arrival. I would like to include different post-synaptic dynamics with different and preferably multiple timescales (like the beta_multisynapse). Someone mentioned before that a lot of the synaptic dynamics can be defined outside the neuron. So can I use beta synapses with the izhikevich neuron as it is now? Or should I somehow include these dynamics in the C++ file of my new module? I hope the questions are clear. Please let me know if I should provide any additional information. Thanks in advance and have a very nice weekend! Kind regards, Nina

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Installing an extension module in tvb-nest docker
by Nina Doorn 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

Dear experts, To develop a spiking neuronal network model of the thalamus, I want to adapt the Izhikevich neuron model to account for the behavior of thalamocortical neurons. Before I do this, I wanted to test if it was possible to install an extension module in my setup. Therefore I followed these steps: https://nest-extension-module.readthedocs.io/en/latest/extension_modules.ht… to install this example nest-extension-module: https://github.com/nest/nest-extension-module . I am working with the tvb-multiscale docker container ( https://github.com/the-virtual-brain/tvb-multiscale/tree/master/tvb_multisc…) in VScode on windows. I've been working with this succesfully and easily managed to make thalamus models with the available aeIF neuron model of NEST. I'm using a python 3.7.3 interpreter and NEST 3. I've succesfully "made" the module with: > docker@84fabd16af99:~/mmb$ cmake > -Dwith-nest=/home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/bin/nest-config > ../nest-extension-module-master It gives me the message: > You can now build and install 'mymodule' using > make > make install > The library file libmymodule.so will be installed to > /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/lib/nest/ > Help files will be installed to > /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/share/doc/nest > The module can be loaded into NEST using > nest.Install('mymodule') (in PyNEST) > (mymodule) Install (in SLI > -- Configuring done > -- Generating done > -- Build files have been written to: /home/docker/mmb However, when I try to "make". I get a bunch of errors that I have added at the end of this email. My colleague tried to install exactly the same module in exactly the same way on his linux machine and it worked perfectly. But somehow for me, I get these weird errors that I haven't been able to resolve so far. Does anyone have an idea what the problem might be? It would be greatly appreciated. If you need any additional information please let me know. Thank you in advance and have a nice day! Kind regards, Nina Doorn Error message: docker@84fabd16af99:~/mmb$ make Scanning dependencies of target mymodule_module [ 10%] Building CXX object src/CMakeFiles/mymodule_module.dir/mymodule.cpp.o In file included from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:30: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:92:1: error: expected class-name before ‘{’ token { ^ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:115:21: error: type ‘nest::Node’ is not a base type for type ‘mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ using nest::Node::handle; ^~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:116:21: error: type ‘nest::Node’ is not a base type for type ‘mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ using nest::Node::handles_test_event; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:121:14: error: ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::send_test_event(nest::Node&, nest::port, nest::synindex, bool)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override nest::port send_test_event( nest::Node&, nest::port, nest::synindex, bool ) override; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:129:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handle(nest::SpikeEvent&)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void handle( nest::SpikeEvent& ) override; //! accept spikes ^~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:130:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handle(nest::CurrentEvent&)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void handle( nest::CurrentEvent& ) override; //! accept input current ^~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:131:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handle(nest::DataLoggingRequest&)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void handle( nest::DataLoggingRequest& ) override; //! allow recording with multimeter ^~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:133:14: error: ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::SpikeEvent&, nest::port)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override nest::port handles_test_event( nest::SpikeEvent&, nest::port ) override; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:134:14: error: ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::CurrentEvent&, nest::port)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override nest::port handles_test_event( nest::CurrentEvent&, nest::port ) override; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:135:14: error: ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::DataLoggingRequest&, nest::port)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override nest::port handles_test_event( nest::DataLoggingRequest&, nest::port ) override; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:138:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::get_status(DictionaryDatum&) const’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void get_status( DictionaryDatum& ) const override; ^~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:139:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::set_status(const DictionaryDatum&)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void set_status( const DictionaryDatum& ) override; ^~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:143:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::init_buffers_()’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void init_buffers_() override; ^~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:146:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::calibrate()’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void calibrate() override; ^~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:149:8: error: ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::update(const nest::Time&, long int, long int)’ marked ‘override’, but does not override void update( nest::Time const&, const long, const long ) override; ^~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::send_test_event(nest::Node&, nest::port, nest::synindex, bool)’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:324:23: error: no matching function for call to ‘nest::SpikeEvent::set_sender(mynest::pif_psc_alpha&)’ e.set_sender( *this ); ^ In file included from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/connector_model.h:34, from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/common_synapse_properties.h:27, from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/connection.h:27, from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/drop_odd_spike_connection.h:27, from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:29: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/event.h:1288:1: note: candidate: ‘void nest::Event::set_sender(nest::Node&)’ Event::set_sender( Node& s ) ^~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/event.h:1288:1: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ to ‘nest::Node&’ In file included from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:30: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::SpikeEvent&, nest::port)’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:337:53: error: ‘get_name’ was not declared in this scope throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:337:53: note: suggested alternative: ‘get_V_m_’ throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ get_V_m_ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::CurrentEvent&, nest::port)’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:351:53: error: ‘get_name’ was not declared in this scope throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:351:53: note: suggested alternative: ‘get_V_m_’ throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ get_V_m_ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘nest::port mynest::pif_psc_alpha::handles_test_event(nest::DataLoggingRequest&, nest::port)’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:366:53: error: ‘get_name’ was not declared in this scope throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:366:53: note: suggested alternative: ‘get_V_m_’ throw nest::UnknownReceptorType( receptor_type, get_name() ); ^~~~~~~~ get_V_m_ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::get_status(DictionaryDatum&) const’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:380:3: error: ‘ArchivingNode’ has not been declared ArchivingNode::get_status( d ); ^~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h: In member function ‘void mynest::pif_psc_alpha::set_status(const DictionaryDatum&)’: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/pif_psc_alpha.h:397:3: error: ‘ArchivingNode’ has not been declared ArchivingNode::set_status( d ); ^~~~~~~~~~~~~ In file included from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/connection_manager_impl.h:33, from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:38: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/conn_builder_factory.h: In instantiation of ‘nest::ConnBuilder* nest::ConnBuilderFactory<ConnBuilderType>::create(nest::NodeCollectionPTR, nest::NodeCollectionPTR, const DictionaryDatum&, const DictionaryDatum&) const [with ConnBuilderType = mynest::StepPatternBuilder; nest::NodeCollectionPTR = std::shared_ptr<nest::NodeCollection>; DictionaryDatum = lockPTRDatum<Dictionary, (& SLIInterpreter::Dictionarytype)>]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/conn_builder_factory.h:67:3: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/conn_builder_factory.h:72:12: error: no matching function for call to ‘mynest::StepPatternBuilder::StepPatternBuilder(nest::NodeCollectionPTR&, nest::NodeCollectionPTR&, const DictionaryDatum&, const DictionaryDatum&)’ return new ConnBuilderType( sources, targets, conn_spec, syn_spec ); ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In file included from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:31: /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:35:3: note: candidate: ‘mynest::StepPatternBuilder::StepPatternBuilder(nest::NodeCollectionPTR, nest::NodeCollectionPTR, const DictionaryDatum&, const std::vector<lockPTRDatum<Dictionary, (& SLIInterpreter::Dictionarytype)> >&)’ StepPatternBuilder( const nest::NodeCollectionPTR sources, ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:35:3: note: no known conversion for argument 4 from ‘const DictionaryDatum’ {aka ‘const lockPTRDatum<Dictionary, (& SLIInterpreter::Dictionarytype)>’} to ‘const std::vector<lockPTRDatum<Dictionary, (& SLIInterpreter::Dictionarytype)> >&’ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:32:7: note: candidate: ‘mynest::StepPatternBuilder::StepPatternBuilder(const mynest::StepPatternBuilder&)’ class StepPatternBuilder : public nest::ConnBuilder ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:32:7: note: candidate expects 1 argument, 4 provided /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:32:7: note: candidate: ‘mynest::StepPatternBuilder::StepPatternBuilder(mynest::StepPatternBuilder&&)’ /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/step_pattern_builder.h:32:7: note: candidate expects 1 argument, 4 provided In file included from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/model_manager.h:31, from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/kernel_manager.h:31, from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/connector_base_impl.h:26, from /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/connection.h:29, from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/drop_odd_spike_connection.h:27, from /home/docker/nest-extension-module-master/src/mymodule.cpp:29: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘bool nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::has_proxies() [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:174:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:176:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘has_proxies’ return proto_.has_proxies(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘bool nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::one_node_per_process() [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:181:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:183:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘one_node_per_process’ return proto_.one_node_per_process(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘bool nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::is_off_grid() [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:188:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:190:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘is_off_grid’ return proto_.is_off_grid(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::calibrate_time(const nest::TimeConverter&) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:195:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:197:10: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘calibrate_time’; did you mean ‘calibrate’? proto_.calibrate_time( tc ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~ calibrate /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::sends_secondary_event(nest::GapJunctionEvent&) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:209:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:211:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘sends_secondary_event’; did you mean ‘send_test_event’? return proto_.sends_secondary_event( ge ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ send_test_event /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:211:43: error: return-statement with a value, in function returning ‘void’ [-fpermissive] return proto_.sends_secondary_event( ge ); ^ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::sends_secondary_event(nest::InstantaneousRateConnectionEvent&) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:216:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:218:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘sends_secondary_event’; did you mean ‘send_test_event’? return proto_.sends_secondary_event( re ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ send_test_event /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:218:43: error: return-statement with a value, in function returning ‘void’ [-fpermissive] return proto_.sends_secondary_event( re ); ^ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::sends_secondary_event(nest::DiffusionConnectionEvent&) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:223:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:225:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘sends_secondary_event’; did you mean ‘send_test_event’? return proto_.sends_secondary_event( de ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ send_test_event /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:225:43: error: return-statement with a value, in function returning ‘void’ [-fpermissive] return proto_.sends_secondary_event( de ); ^ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::sends_secondary_event(nest::DelayedRateConnectionEvent&) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:230:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:232:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘sends_secondary_event’; did you mean ‘send_test_event’? return proto_.sends_secondary_event( re ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ send_test_event /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:232:43: error: return-statement with a value, in function returning ‘void’ [-fpermissive] return proto_.sends_secondary_event( re ); ^ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘nest::SignalType nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::sends_signal() const [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:237:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:239:17: error: ‘const class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘sends_signal’ return proto_.sends_signal(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘const nest::Node& nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::get_prototype() const [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:267:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:269:10: error: invalid initialization of reference of type ‘const nest::Node&’ from expression of type ‘const mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ return proto_; ^~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘void nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::set_model_id(int) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:274:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:276:10: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘set_model_id’ proto_.set_model_id( i ); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘int nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::get_model_id() [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:281:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:283:17: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘get_model_id’ return proto_.get_model_id(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~ /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘DictionaryDatum nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::get_status_() [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha; DictionaryDatum = lockPTRDatum<Dictionary, (& SLIInterpreter::Dictionarytype)>]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:251:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:253:30: error: ‘class mynest::pif_psc_alpha’ has no member named ‘get_status_base’; did you mean ‘get_status’? DictionaryDatum d = proto_.get_status_base(); ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ get_status /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h: In instantiation of ‘nest::Node* nest::GenericModel<ElementT>::allocate_(void*) [with ElementT = mynest::pif_psc_alpha]’: /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:159:1: required from here /home/docker/env/neurosci/nest_build/include/nest/genericmodel.h:161:9: error: cannot convert ‘mynest::pif_psc_alpha*’ to ‘nest::Node*’ in initialization Node* n = new ( adr ) ElementT( proto_ ); ^ make[2]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/mymodule_module.dir/build.make:63: src/CMakeFiles/mymodule_module.dir/mymodule.cpp.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:125: src/CMakeFiles/mymodule_module.dir/all] Error 2 make: *** [Makefile:152: all] Error 2

5 18

Using NEST in Spyder/anaconda
by Julien Ballbé 10 Nov '21

10 Nov '21

Dear Sir, Dear Madam, I am currently trying to install NEST in order to be able to use it within an IDE, like Spyder. For the moment I am only able to do the following: open Terminal python3 import nest This works when I use it in the terminal of the computer, but when I open Spyder and execute the following: import nest neuron=nest.Create("iaf_psc_alpha") neuron.get() I get the following error message in the IPython console: runfile('/Users/julienballbe/NEST/untitled0.py', wdir='/Users/julienballbe/NEST') Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/julienballbe/NEST/untitled0.py", line 11, in <module> neuron=nest.Create("iaf_psc_alpha") AttributeError: module 'nest' has no attribute 'Create' I am using a Macbook pro M1Max, MacOS 12.0, Spyder 5.1.5, Python 3.9.7. I followed the instruction for building nest on your website ( https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation/mac_install.ht…) and used your recommendation for M1 macs ( https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation/conda_tips.html ). I build Nest following your instruction, the only error I got was when I ran : (nest-simulator-dev) julienballbe@pclnrs241 NEST % make installcheck NEST Testsuite Results ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Phase Tests Skipped Failures Errors Time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 basetests 6 0 0 0 2.0 02 selftests 8 0 0 0 1.0 03 unittests 179 0 0 0 47.0 04 regressiontests 94 2 0 0 55.0 07 pynesttests 93 0 0 93 2.0 07 pynesttests nc 0 0 0 0 0.0 08 cpptests 30 0 0 0 0.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 410 2 0 93 107.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NEST TESTSUITE DISCOVERED PROBLEMS The following tests failed | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_NodeCollection | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_aeif_lsodar | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_changing_tic_base | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_clopath_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_all_to_all | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_array_fixed_indegree | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_array_fixed_outdegree | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_arrays | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_conngen | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_fixed_indegree | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_fixed_outdegree | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_fixed_total_number | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_one_to_one | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_pairwise_bernoulli | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_connect_symmetric_pairwise_bernoulli | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_create | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_current_recording_generators | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_erfc_neuron | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_errors | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_events | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_facetshw_stdp | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_get_set | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_getconnections | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_getnodes | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_glif_cond | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_glif_psc | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_helper_functions | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_jonke_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_json | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_labeled_synapses | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_mc_neuron | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_multiple_synapses | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_nodeParametrization | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_onetooneconnect | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_parameter | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_parrot_neuron | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_parrot_neuron_ps | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_poisson_generator_rate_change | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_pp_psc_delta | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_pp_psc_delta_stdp | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_quantal_stp_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_random123 | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_random_parameter | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_rate_copy_model | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_rate_instantaneous_and_delayed | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_rate_neuron | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_rate_neuron_communication | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_recording_backend_ascii | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_recording_backend_memory | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_recording_backends | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_refractory | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_regression_issue-1034 | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_regression_issue-1409 | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_regression_issue-2069 | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_regression_issue-2125 | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_siegert_neuron | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_split_simulation | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_stack | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_status | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_stdp_multiplicity | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_stdp_nn_synapses | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_stdp_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_stdp_triplet_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_step_rate_generator | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_synapsecollection | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_threads | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_tsodyks2_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_urbanczik_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_visualization | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_vogels_sprekeler_synapse | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_weight_recorder | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_weights_as_lists | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_conn_builder | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_disconnect | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_disconnect_multiple | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_enable_multithread | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_growth_curves | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_sp_manager | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_synaptic_elements | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_sp.test_update_synaptic_elements | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_SynapseCollection_distance | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_basics | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_connect_layers | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_connect_sliced | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_connection_with_elliptical_mask | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_create_spatial | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_dumping | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_layerNodeCollection | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_layer_GetStatus_SetStatus | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_plotting | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_rotated_rect_mask | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_selection_function_and_elliptical_mask | .share.nest.testsuite.pytests.test_spatial.test_spatial_distributions Please report test failures by creating an issue at https://github.com/nest/nest_simulator/issues ---------------------------------------------------------------------- make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck] Error 1 make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/all] Error 2 make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/rule] Error 2 make: *** [installcheck] Error 2 Can you please help me with this? I stay at your disposal for any further information. Thank you for your help, Best feelings, Julien Ballbé -- *Julien BALLBÉ Y SABATÉ* *Étudiant en thèse - PhD student* *Neurophysiology of Visual Computation* Centre Giovanni Borelli - CNRS UMR 9010 Université de Paris 45 rue des Saint-Pères, 75006 Paris, France Tel: +33 6 79 03 40 35

2 1

population specific structural plasticity switch
by Aadhar Sharma 10 Nov '21

10 Nov '21

2 2

NeuronUnit interface to NEST Adexp model.
by Russell J. Jarvis 10 Nov '21

10 Nov '21

Hi there NEST community, I am trying to build an interface between [NEST reduced cell models (Izhikevich/AdExp) and NeuronUnit](https://github.com/russelljjarvis/NESTNeuronUnit). For example here is one such [interface](https://github.com/russelljjarvis/NESTNeuronUnit/blob/master/nes… ) I find that if I run a single current injection experiment using the interface I get an expected number of spikes, but if I keep re-using the same interface in more and more experiments I get the same or similar number of spikes even with different current injection values. Its as if the initial conditions of the model are not re-setting properly. I wonder if there are any ideas of things I could check. This [simple file works okay](https://github.com/russelljjarvis/NESTNeuronUnit/blob/master/test_int…, but it only has one simulation run. Russell Jarvis (he,him) PhD Neuroscience [Personal Website](https://russelljjarvis.github.io/home/) I acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Owners and Custodians of the lands on which I live and work and pay my respect to Elders past, present and future. phone: 61444576301 email: russelljarvis(a)protonmail.com Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com/) Secure Email.

2 3

Get details of source and target from Connection list
by Maryada Maryada 09 Nov '21

09 Nov '21

Dear NEST users, In the past version, for debugging purposes I used to get information of my source and target using the GetStatus function. However, with NEST 3.0, I couldn't find a way to do so, mainly because I have to pass either a SynpaseCollection or NeuronCollection as a function argument to GetStatus. Is it possible to fetch node collection from neuron id? Or any easier way to get source and target properties. I referred document at link https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.1/guides/connection_management.… I have attached the python file for the same. -- Thanks, *Maryada*

2 3

install nest-2.20.0
by Alberto 08 Nov '21

08 Nov '21

Dear experts, I'd like to install the Nest version 2.20.0 instead of the last 3.1. Is it still available for download? Thanks Alberto

4 8

Get details of source and target from Connection list
by Maryada Maryada 08 Nov '21

08 Nov '21

Dear NEST users, In the past version, for debugging purposes, I used to get information of my source and target using the GetStatus function. However, with NEST 3.0, I couldn't find a way to do so, mainly because I have to pass either a SynpaseCollection or NeuronCollection as a function argument to GetStatus. Is it possible to fetch node collection from neuron id? Or any easier way to get the source and target properties. I referred document at link https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.1/guides/connection_management.… I have attached the python file for the same. -- Thanks and Regards *Maryada*

1 0

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 8 November 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 08 Nov '21

08 Nov '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 8 November, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-11-08-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Requesting for workflow and analysis
by D S Jaswanth 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Sir /madam I'm jaswanth , pursuing my master's degree in biochemistry @reva university Were I'm very much interested working with brain modelling by using neuroinformatical tools as part of my research project I request that please give me workflow for Analysing dataset and codes for analysis of dataset finally what types of datasets can be used for brain modelling by nest I hope for your consideration and guidance Thanks and regards

2 3

NEST on macOS 12 Monterey
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Dear NEST Users, I would just like to let you know that I have successfully built, installed and tested NEST on macOS 12.0.1 (Monterey) on Apple Silicon, following the standard procedure for the Mac. Both Apple Clang 13.0 and G++ 11 work. Note that there have been some reports that upgrading to macOS Monterey can very thoroughly lock your machine, especially Intel-based machines (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/11/why-macos-updates-might-brick-your-…), so you may want to wait with upgrading until this is solved. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

1 0

Re: Adapt custom models from NEST 2.16 to NEST 3.
by Agnes Korcsak-Gorzo 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

Dear all, the request below from 20.10.2021 was successfully resolved. Best regards, Agnes """" Hello everyone, I want to adapt two custom models called "global_volume_transmitter" and "dopa_connection" from NEST 2.16 to NEST 3.1. The .cpp and .h files are attached to this email. Is it possible to have the models adapted to NEST 3.1? How could this be done? I hope someone can help me with that. Best regards, Daniel Todt """

1 0

nest installment in Docker nestsim/nest container
by Nina Doorn 25 Oct '21

25 Oct '21

Dear experts, I have a question about using nest on docker/vscode on my windows PC. I hope this is the right place to ask since I couldn't answer my question using the troubleshooting session. I am using docker to use pyNEST on my windows computer. I have successfully installed NEST using the instructions mentioned here for installing on docker: https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v2.20.1/installation/index.html. If I am in the container, I have python version 3.8.10. If I run python and then try to "import nest" it says there is no module named nest. Importing other python packages works perfectly in this way. But indeed, when I look at all the installed packages using pip list, there is no package called "nest". There is, however "nest-desktop 3.0.3" there. So I guess nest is not installed. However, I also don't know how to install it. If I use pip install nest, another package called nest is installed that is not the nest simulator (according to: #754 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/issues/754>). Also, I don't know whether this problem is related or totally unrelated but it might give some insight: when I am in VScode in the nestsim/nest container and I click on python: select interpreter, nothing happens, I cannot select a python interpreter/no window opens. So maybe there is something wrong with the python installations or the used path? I hope the problem is clear. I've been trying different things for days so I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer me! Thanks in advance and have a nice day! Kind regards, Nina Doorn

4 8

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 11 October 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 25 Oct '21

25 Oct '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 25 October, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-10-25-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

HBP CodeJam#12
by Dennis Terhorst 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Dear all, next month there will be another HBP CodeJam [1] coming up on Nov 23rd-26th and we think this might be an interesting occasion to meet and bring everyone up to the new possibilities now becoming available. The setup of models has become a lot simpler for example using NEST 3's object attribute access, and many models just need minor changes to make use of the powerful new syntax. Additionally the EBRAINS infrastructure has recently released very useful features that allow to combine different tools across the platform. While the CodeJam is mainly advertised for service providers, it would be extremely helpful to have interested power users in the discussion to get direct feed-back for which features to specially prioritize. As far as I know the event is open to anyone with an EBRAINS account for which you can quickly register [2]. We can set up discussion slots also for discussing your use-case, questions or comments, and the event is also suited to work on real code and boost your project. If you are interested for example to have a look into migrating your model to NEST 3, or if you have a particular topic you would like to discuss with NEST developers, or see what is possible on EBRAINS now, please register for the event and let me know! I'll try to gather the most productive set of people for those discussions. (In case you create a new EBRAINS account for this CodeJam let me know, so I can have your account linked to the workshop – need to check…) Looking forward! Best, Dennis [1]: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/follow-hbp/events/ebrainshbp-codejam-co… [2]: https://ebrains.eu/register -- Dipl.-Phys. Dennis Terhorst Coordinator Software Development Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Computational and Systems Neuroscience & Theoretical Neuroscience, Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Jülich Research Centre, Member of the Helmholz Association and JARA 52425 Jülich, Germany Building 15.22 Room 4004 Phone +49 2461 61-85062 Fax +49 2461 61- 9460 d.terhorst(a)fz-juelich.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ----------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Connection management for huge network
by kusch lionel 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

Dear all, In my working group, we are working on the creation of the spiking neural network of human CA1 (4.8 million neurons). We are using a specific function for defining the connection between the neurons. This function gives us 30 billion pairwise connections. We would like to know what the most efficient for the creating the network in NEST 3 using this pairwise connectivity. Thank you in advance for your answer, Kusch Lionel

3 4

Adapt custom models from NEST 2.16 to NEST 3.1
by Daniel Todt 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

Hello everyone, I want to adapt two custom models called "global_volume_transmitter" and "dopa_connection" from NEST 2.16 to NEST 3.1. The .cpp and .h files are attached to this email. Is it possible to have the models adapted to NEST 3.1? How could this be done? I hope someone can help me with that. Best regards, Daniel Todt -- Daniel Todt HPC in Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Tel.: +49 2461 61 85277 E-Mail: d.todt(a)fz-juelich.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Dennis Asked
by Chris Huyck 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

I've recently downloaded a new version of NEST, and I'm trying to make a new synaptic model, but am breaking down in building their default MyModule model. The process onhttps://nest.github.io/nest-simulator/extension_modules<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnest.gith…> says to run bootstrap.sh, but I can't find a bootstrap.sh. Do you have a version you could send me? If not, who can I contact for help (and how)? -Chris

2 1

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 11 October 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 11 Oct '21

11 Oct '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 11 October, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Today we again have two possible topics for the in-depth discussion that you may be interested in: * Plasticity models via NESTML, and * NEST wheels (Python package mechanism). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-10-11-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 27 September 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 27 Sep '21

27 Sep '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 27 September, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-09-27-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

NEST 3.1 is there!
by Dennis Terhorst 15 Sep '21

15 Sep '21

2 1

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 13 September 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 13 Sep '21

13 Sep '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 13 September, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Today we have two topics for the in-depth discussion that you may be interested in. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion * Failing assertions #2101 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/issues/2101> * Naming of modules (see nest-connplotter:#2 <https://github.com/nest/nest-connplotter/pull/2>) The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-09-13-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

NEST 3.0: Plot weight matrices example ERROR
by Ing Jyh Tsang 31 Aug '21

31 Aug '21

I think there is an error in https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/stable/auto_examples/plot_weight_m… * min(E_neurons)and min(I_neurons) should be replace to * min(E_neurons.tolist()) and min(I_neurons.tolist())or some other way to get the right values Suggestion: The file plot_weight_matrices.py just contain a def plot_weight_matrices(E_neurons, I_neurons). If it had a complete code to create nodes, assign weights then plot the weight matrixes, the error could have been caught automatically (CI/CD)? Best, Inton

2 1

Problems after ubuntu installed nest-3.0 built on Aug 24 2021
by Ing Jyh Tsang 31 Aug '21

31 Aug '21

Hi, After my ubuntu upgraded nest. Whenever I run a program it does not seems to identify the nest module. For example, running the twoneuron.py example gives: Traceback (most recent call last): File "twoneurons.py", line 43, in <module> import nest.voltage_trace ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'nest.voltage_trace' Please solution for this? I tried remove and reinstalling and did not work. I did not try building it. Thanks, Inton

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AttributeError: module 'nest' has no attribute 'SetKernelStatus'
by Alberto 31 Aug '21

31 Aug '21

Hi, suddenly, I am starting having this error. I have both PyNN and Nest installed. If it's more related to the PyNN community, I will forward this message to them, but at this moment I don't know if it's more related to Nest or PyNN side. Maybe some of you have met a similar issue. >>> import pyNN.nest as sim Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/alberto/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyNN/nest/__init__.py", line 18, in <module> from . import simulator File "/home/alberto/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyNN/nest/simulator.py", line 261, in <module> state = _State() # a Singleton, so only a single instance ever exists File "/home/alberto/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyNN/nest/simulator.py", line 58, in __init__ self.spike_precision = "off_grid" File "/home/alberto/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyNN/nest/simulator.py", line 114, in _set_spike_precision nest.SetKernelStatus({'off_grid_spiking': True}) AttributeError: module 'nest' has no attribute 'SetKernelStatus' Thanks, Alberto

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 30 August 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 30 Aug '21

30 Aug '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 30 August, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion (optional) The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-08-30-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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ISAV'21: In Situ Infrastructures for Enabling Extreme-scale Analysis and Visualization
by Tom Vierjahn 19 Aug '21

19 Aug '21

Dear all, for our in situ workshop at this year’s Supercomputing (https://vis.lbl.gov/events/ISAV2021/) we are still looking for submissions. So, if you are doing work on visualizing or analysing the results of a NEST simulation while it is running, you might consider submitting, quickly. The deadline will be extended to August 27. Please, find the CfP below. Cheers, Tom Vierjahn -- Tom Vierjahn Professor of Computer Science Dept. Business Studies and Information Technology Westphalian University of Applied Sciences Bocholt, Germany -- ISAV 2021: In Situ Infrastructures for Enabling Extreme-scale Analysis and Visualization # Workshop Theme The considerable interest in the HPC community regarding in situ analysis and visualization is due to several factors. First is an I/O cost savings, where data is analyzed/visualized while being generated, without first storing to a file system. Second is the potential for increased accuracy, where fine temporal sampling of transient analysis might expose some complex behavior missed in coarse temporal sampling. Third is the ability to use all available resources, CPUs and accelerators, in the computation of analysis products. The workshop brings together researchers, developers and practitioners from industry, academia, and government laboratories developing, applying, and deploying in situ methods in extreme-scale, high performance computing. The goal is to present research findings, lessons learned, and insights related to developing and applying in situ methods and infrastructure across a range of science and engineering applications in HPC environments; to discuss topics like opportunities presented by new architectures, existing infrastructure needs, requirements, and gaps, and experiences to foster and enable in situ analysis and visualization; to serve as a “center of gravity” for researchers, practitioners, and users/consumers of in situ methods and infrastructure in the HPC space. # Participation/Call for Papers We invite two types of submissions to ISAV 2021: (1) short, 4-page (+references) papers that present research results, that identify opportunities or challenges, and that present case studies/best practices for in situ methods/infrastructure in the areas of data management, analysis and visualization; (2) lightning presentation submissions, consisting of a 1- or 2-page (+references) submission, for a brief oral presentation at the workshop. Short papers will appear in the workshop proceedings and authors will be invited to give an oral presentation of 15 to 20 minutes; lightning round submissions invited to present at the workshop will have author names and titles included as part of the proceedings. Submissions of both types are welcome that fall within one or more areas of interest. Areas of interest for ISAV include, but are not limited to: - In situ infrastructures: Novel designs for systems and libraries; Opportunities; Gaps - System resources, hardware, and emerging architectures: Enabling Hardware; Hardware and architectures that provide opportunities for In situ processing, such as burst buffers, staging computations on I/O nodes, sharing cores within a node for both simulation and in situ processing; Efficient use of heterogeneous architectures. - Methods/algorithms: Best practices; Analysis: Feature detection, statistical methods, temporal methods, geometric and topological methods; Visualization: information visualization, scientific visualization, time-varying methods; Data reduction/compression. - Case Studies and Data Sources: Examples/case studies of solving a specific science challenge with in situ methods/infrastructure; In situ methods/systems applied to data from simulations and/or experiments/observations. - Simulation and Workflows: Integration, data modeling, software-engineering; Resilience: error detection, fault recovery; Workflows for supporting complex in situ processing pipelines. - Requirements and Usability: Reproducibility, provenance and metadata; Using in situ to enable rapid and flexible post-processing; Simplified access to extreme heterogeneous resources.

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Mailing list hick-up
by Jochen Martin Eppler 19 Aug '21

19 Aug '21

Hi all! During an upgrade of the Mailman system today, some of you were affected by a small hick-up that caused your subscription to be suspended (not cancelled). Meanwhile, I've re-enabled all of you and you should be able to receive mails again just fine. Sorry for any confusion caused by this. Cheers, Jochen! -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49(2461)61-96653 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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test
by Jochen Martin Eppler 19 Aug '21

19 Aug '21

Please ignore -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49(2461)61-96653 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Test
by Jochen Martin Eppler 19 Aug '21

19 Aug '21

Please ignore! -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49(2461)61-96653 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 16 August 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 16 Aug '21

16 Aug '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 16 August, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-08-16-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Re: libnestutil BlockVector Implementation
by Håkon Mørk 10 Aug '21

10 Aug '21

Hi Itaru, The problem we had with std::vector was how it allocates memory. When the memory allocated for a vector is full, its capacity is increased by allocating a bigger chunk of memory (commonly with double the capacity of the original vector), and all elements are moved to the new allocation. We observed that when connections are all put in one big vector, and the number of connections in the vector becomes large, memory consumption from vector growth becomes problematic. We therefore created a new container, BlockVector, to keep memory consumption under control and avoid moving the elements when increasing the capacity. The BlockVector achieves this by allocating an entire block of a fixed size every time the capacity has to be increased. The BlockVector therefore becomes a vector of vectors, where the entire size of each new block, which is a new vector in the vector of vectors, is allocated only once when the block is created. Some benchmarks were done during the review of the PR, https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1047 You can find the benchmarks here: https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/files/2505835/Bench_214_sq_db70dcc1e… Note that BlockVector was called "Seque" at the time. Best, Håkon ________________________________ From: Itaru Kitayama <itaru.kitayama(a)gmail.com> Sent: 10 August 2021 05:51 To: NEST User Mailing List <users(a)nest-simulator.org> Subject: [NEST Users] libnestutil BlockVector Implementation Hello Håkon, As you implemented, an instance of BlockVector is a vector of vectors but allows users to specify with one index. As I am having a few problems with mapping BlockVetors to the device memory, I am simply wondering as to why we can't just use std::vector< value_type >? If you guys observed significant performance improvements with BlockVectors in the past, would you mind pointing me to the papers or notes? Thanks, Itaru. _______________________________________________ NEST Users mailing list -- users(a)nest-simulator.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave(a)nest-simulator.org

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Re: Filip Blaštík - Noise generation after stimuation problem
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 10 Aug '21

10 Aug '21

Hello Filip, I am not quite sure I understand your problem description. You write that "... after the simulation the Nodes top reacting to the noise input and become stuck on the refresh Voltage ...". But in the figure you show, the neurons have V_M ≈ -75 mV ≈ E_L for the first 30 ms, which would correspond to neurons only receiving noise input during this time and afterward seem to spike at roughly 20 ms intervals. It does seem curious that they seem to have a more or less constant membrane potential of ≈ -65 mV between the phases with spiking. So one question is what happens around 30 ms? The other question is why the "locking" to -65 mV. Could you send the full simulation script leading to the figure you included? Or even better, a minimal version of it, i.e., a complete, runnable script producing a figure with the effect you showed, but with as few layers and as few neurons per layer as possible? Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser On 26/07/2021, 14:28, "Filip Blastik" <filipblastik(a)gmail.com<mailto:filipblastik@gmail.com>> wrote: To whom it may concern, I am writing regarding the problem with giving my topology network noise after simulation with the signal. The network is oscillating with noise generator which is created as single layer which provides noise for other nodes (which consist of layers). I stimulate my network with stronger signal(another different layer) and after the simulation the Nodes stop reacting to the noise input and become stuck on refresh Voltage and its for longer periods than refractory period. The model is derivation of Hill-Tononi example network. The Nest is running on Ubuntu 20.04 , Conda/Spyder The nest is version v2.20.1 To visualize the problem here are the images which illustrate the problem [cid:image001.png@01D78DC3.D2D6F180] [cid:image002.png@01D78DC3.D2D6F180] Here is the snippet of the code with the connections and layer setups Best regards Bc. Filip Blaštík

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NEST pool allocator
by Itaru Kitayama 20 Jul '21

20 Jul '21

Hi, If Tiziano who wrote the code could enlighten me on understanding further of the code that'd be great, but in case he left already could the Community can jump in?; The "chunks" are clearly dedicated to Nodes, but I wonder if there are cases chunks are used for other objects? Thanks, Itaru.

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 19 July 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 19 Jul '21

19 Jul '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 19 July, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In depth: Running inside Docker on Piz Daint The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-07-19-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 5 July 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 05 Jul '21

05 Jul '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 5 July, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As there is the CNS Conference ongoing and many may be in a New York timezone we'll try to keep it short. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-07-05-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Changing connection weight according to a function
by Ryan Rahy 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Dear all, I am trying to build a network where one of the connection weights changes according to a given function. I'm specifically looking for a step function, such that the weight would stay constant at a negative value until a given time point, where it would suddenly change to positive value. As far as I can tell, the existing synaptic models with plasticity cannot do this. I'm trying to do this in order to model a rebound effect, where a neuron fires after being released form an inhibitory current. This effect takes place over a time scale of seconds in the circuit I'm studying, so using an existing model with built-in GABA-mediated rebound doesn't do the trick. So is there a way to manually change a connection weight during the simulation? If not, is there some other way I could achieve the same effect in NEST? Thanks in advance! Best, Ryan

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 21 June 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 21 Jun '21

21 Jun '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 21 June, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-06-21-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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NEST wheels
by Robin Gilbert De Schepper 15 Jun '21

15 Jun '21

Hi all! NEST is pip installable! I'd like to collect some feedback on #2073 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/2073> so anyone that is interested to try out a (temporary) pip installed NEST can try `pip install nest-on-square-wheels`. It takes as long as a regular NEST install so it can take a while to finish. In case of errors the error message is usually buried in quite a big red blob of pip mumbo jumbo, but other than that it should be a nice hands-off experience :) You can build with MPI: > pip install nest-on-square-wheels --install-option="--mpi=ON" and control the amount of CMake jobs if it makes your machine stall: > pip install nest-on-square-wheels --install-option="--mpi=ON" --install-option="--jobs=2" All feedback is welcome on the PR, these temporary `nest-on-square-wheels` will be removed in the near future so obviously don't count on them in any scripts or package lists. -- Robin De Schepper, MSc Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences Unit of Neurophysiology University of Pavia, Italy Via Forlanini 6, 27100 Pavia - Italy Tel: (+39) 038298-7607 http://www-5.unipv.it/dangelo/ Interested in network modelling? Discover our framework <https://github.com/dbbs-lab/bsb>: <https://github.com/dbbs-lab/bsb>

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NEST Conference 2021 - register by June 21!
by Anne Elfgen 14 Jun '21

14 Jun '21

Dear all, Just a little reminder that the registration deadline for the NEST Conference 2021 is on Monday next week, June 21. More information on the programme and how to register can be found on the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Monday/Tuesday 28/29 June 2021 followed by a virtual NEST User Hackathon until Friday 2 July. The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. We are looking forward to seeing you all! Hans Ekkehard Plesser & many more --------------------- * Registration fee for non-members: 50 CHF Registration fee for NEST Initiative members: 20 CHF Annual NI membership fee: 25 CHF ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sharing code that runs with an altered model of NEST
by Julia Gallinaro 14 Jun '21

14 Jun '21

Dear NEST Community, I have performed a small alteration on one model of NEST for a project I am working on (It is a minor alteration: I included a minimum hard bound for weights in the triplet STDP rule). I now want to share the code for this project, and would like to know what is the best approach for doing this. Should I provide my copy of the altered model file together with my project scripts? Or is there another way of doing it, which is more appropriate? I am sorry if that is a basic question, but it is the first time I change something on NEST code for a project. Best, Júlia

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NEST 3.0 Release Party (now!) 🥳
by Jochen Martin Eppler 11 Jun '21

11 Jun '21

Dear NEST users and developers! Finally, the wait is over: we have just created the NEST 3.0 release<https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4739103>. Yay! A more formal announcement will follow tomorrow, but for now, it is time to party! Stop whatever you do right now, grab a drink and join us at https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800! Best regards, Jochen & Dennis (on behalf of the whole NEST team) -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49(2461)61-96653 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 7 June 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 07 Jun '21

07 Jun '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 07 June, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-06-07-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Summary of changes to handling of Node collections
by Itaru Kitayama 27 May '21

27 May '21

Hi, Can someone point me to the summary of changes other than git log so I can understand better the changes introduced for the NEST-3 releases? Thanks, Itaru.

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NEST Conference 2021 abstract submission deadline extended
by Anne Elfgen 17 May '21

17 May '21

Dear all, The *abstract submission deadline* for the (virtual) *NEST Conference 2021 **has been extended* to Wednesday, *26 May*. We are still looking forward to your contributions! The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. This year's conference will again take place as a *virtual conference* on *Monday/Tuesday 28/29 June 2021*followed by a virtual NEST User Hackathon until Friday 2 July. We are inviting contributions to the conference, including plenary talks, "posters", breakout sessions and workshops on specific topics. *Important dates* *16 May*2021 — Deadline for NEST Initiative Membership applications *26 May*2021 — Deadline for submission of contributions *08 June*2021 — Notification of acceptance *21 June*2021 — Registration deadline *28 June*2021 — NEST Conference 2021 starts For more information on how to submit your contribution, register and participate, please visit the conference website *https://nest-simulator.org/conference* <https://nest-simulator.org/conference> We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Dennis Terhorst, Anne Elfgen & many more --------------------- * Registration fee for non-members: 50 CHF Registration fee for NEST Initiative members: 20 CHF Annual NI membership fee: 25 CHF

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Re: Stop hanging simulations
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 10 May '21

10 May '21

Hi Tom, As a DIY workaround, you can use the RunManager context to simulate in small steps and break if it gets too slow. I haven't tested the code, just sketching from memory. Instead of calling nest.Simulate(1000), use with nest.RunManager(): for _ in range(100): t = time.time() nest.Run(10) if time.time() - t > 5: break The logic is as follows: You split the 1000 ms into 100 times 10 ms. This is fast with Run() within the RunManager(). You then use Python's time to see how long it takes to simulate 10 ms and break if it takes too long, here a 5 s limit. You can then use GetKernelStatus to get the current time in the simulation. It would be interesting to add this as a kernel feature. Let me know if it works! Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser On 06/05/2021, 16:08, "TOM BUGNON" <bugnon(a)wisc.edu<mailto:bugnon@wisc.edu>> wrote: Hi all, Under some circumstances simulations can slow down up to the point where the nest.Simulate() does not advance anymore and stays stuck at a given virtual time, with a "realtime factor" of 0. I suppose this can happen for instance when a network falls into a regime of runaway excitation in which a massive number of spikes are being exchanged. I'm looking for a way to stop the simulation in such a case, (say when the realtime factor goes below a set threshold, or when the output files are not updated for a certain duration), ideally in such a way that the program can continue running rather than crashing. If anyone has a suggestion about how to go around this issue I'd be happy to hear it. Thanks in advance! Best, Tom

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 10 May 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 10 May '21

10 May '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 10 May, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Today we would have a deeper look on CI/testing in the current GitHub-Actions context and STDP models in particular. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round In-depth discussion * Interactively debugging GitHub Actions <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/actions> failures * Discussion of STDP synapse unit testing #1840 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1840> The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-05-10-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Profiling PyNEST—easier than you think and some interesting results
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 07 May '21

07 May '21

Hi everyone! I realized today that profiling PyNEST is easier than I thought. In iPython, you can just run run -p -s cumulative -D srn.prof ../src/pynest/examples/store_restore_network.py which will run the script, present a summary sorted by cumulative time and write binary profiling data (pstats format) to file srn.prof. Then run (gprof2dot available from, e.g., PiPy) gprof2dot -f pstats -o srn.dot srn.prof and finally dot -Tpdf srn.dot Both tools have lot's of options. In my case (an older version of the script above, currently under review in #1919, not yet in master), the attached PDF resulted, showing that getting connection properties indeed takes a lot of time. Note that the graph only resolves time spent in Python code, time spent in C++ code is hiding behind "run()". Below some more timing results from a network of 1000 neurons with 100,000 connections: In [16]: %time c = nest.GetConnections() CPU times: user 66.5 ms, sys: 8.09 ms, total: 74.6 ms Wall time: 75.7 ms In [17]: %time c = nest.GetConnections().weight CPU times: user 869 ms, sys: 75.3 ms, total: 944 ms Wall time: 955 ms In [18]: %time c = nest.GetConnections().get("weight", output="pandas") CPU times: user 1.69 s, sys: 186 ms, total: 1.88 s Wall time: 1.9 s Clearly, GetConnections() is quite fast, while reading out the weights costs. What maybe surprised me most is that turning the data as a Pandas DataFrame costs a whole second extra—I wonder if we do something suboptimal here. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Stop hanging simulations
by TOM BUGNON 06 May '21

06 May '21

Hi all, Under some circumstances simulations can slow down up to the point where the nest.Simulate() does not advance anymore and stays stuck at a given virtual time, with a "realtime factor" of 0. I suppose this can happen for instance when a network falls into a regime of runaway excitation in which a massive number of spikes are being exchanged. I'm looking for a way to stop the simulation in such a case, (say when the realtime factor goes below a set threshold, or when the output files are not updated for a certain duration), ideally in such a way that the program can continue running rather than crashing. If anyone has a suggestion about how to go around this issue I'd be happy to hear it. Thanks in advance! Best, Tom

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Apologies for spam via NEST Users
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

Dear NEST Users subscribers, In the last 24 hours, you unfortunately received two spam emails via NEST Users. This happened as someone exploited our approach of managing NEST Users based on trust. So far, we allow all registered subscribers to send mails to the list without further control, and we generally accept all subscription requests without double-checking that the requests really come from a person with a genuine interest in NEST. This time, someone exploited our trust to spread spam. We will review our policies to avoid undue spamming, but I do hope we will be able to continue in the spirit of trust that has so far been a hallmark of the NEST Community. Let me close with a bit of advertising of my own: Do not forget to submit your abstract to the NEST Conference 2021 at https://www.nest-simulator.org/conference! Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Delta-8 For Sale
by taliamyers017＠gmail.com 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 26 April 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 26 April, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Today there will be an update and discussion about style guides for documentation and code. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round In-depth discussion * NEST Documentation Style Guide (#1986 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1986>) * Single vs double quotes for Python strings? See also this discussion <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1986#discussion_r610373605> * Which well-established style guide to build on? See also this discussion <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1986#discussion_r613510749> The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-04-26-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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New NEST Random Number Generators in Master
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 23 Apr '21

23 Apr '21

Dear NEST Users and Developers! After a long and demanding process, we merged pull request #1549 into the NEST master branch earlier this afternoon. It replaces the old random number generator suite in NEST completely with a new one based on the C++ Standard Library and also providing generators from the Random123 library, including cryptographic generators. The most important change for users is that you can now much more easily seed generators and change the type of random number generator used. To seed, you only need a single seed—NEST will take care of everything else: nest.SetKernelStatus({'rng_seed': 12345}) is all it takes. To select a different RNG type, use nest.SetKernelStatus({'rng_type': 'mt19937'}) To see all available RNG types, use nest.GetKernelStatus('rng_types') For more information, see https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/nest2_to_nest3/nest2…. I hope this change will motivate everyone to even more systematically explore their models with a wide range of seeds and with different random number generator types. Existing simulation scripts, which otherwise are compatible with NEST master will only need to change the part of the script related to seeding and RNG selection. Because we now use a completely different internal architecture to provide random numbers, the actual sequence of random numbers provided will be different from before. This means that it is not possible to exactly reproduce spike trains obtained with the old RNG setup. Statistically, though, results shall be identical. If you should observe any unexpected deviations in results after switching to the new RNG scheme, please contact us! I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this effort over a long time, especially Håkon and Jochen for their design and development work, and Johanna and Jasper for generating a lot of test data. With the new RNGs, the last major component for NEST3 is now integrated into the NEST master branch and we are very optimistic to finally make the NEST3 release before this summer. Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Iaf - psc - delta neurons data
by Parva Alavian 16 Apr '21

16 Apr '21

Dear developers/users of nest, I am using the iaf-psc-delta neurons in my network and I need to access the information on the amount of excitatory and inhibitory input that each neuron is receiving in time in order to study balance.(so not just I-e but also the inputs that it is getting from other neurons in the randomly connected network). Can you please help me with this? It would also help if I knew where to find the indices of all the neurons that are presynaptic to a given neuron (a connectivity matrix). I would then be able to calculate the input current myself. Looking forward to hearing from you! Kind regards, Parva

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Triplets STDP model
by Julia Gallinaro 14 Apr '21

14 Apr '21

Dear NEST community, I am working with the triplets STDP connection on NEST simulations, and I am interested in how the weight dynamics change when the spike trains are altered in some specific ways. In order to do that, I run a network simulation using NEST and the triplets STDP rule and save the full spike trains of two neurons which are synaptically connected (one pre and one post). I then recreate the weight changes on a code outside the NEST loop, so that I can manipulate the spike trains and observe what happens to the synaptic weights. Trying to validate this approach, though, I find that my code (outside NEST loop) generates different weight values than the NEST simulation when using the same spike trains generated during the simulation. I guess I have some error in my implementation of the triplets rule. I thought it could be something with the implementation of the delays, or the moment when the weights are measured in the simulation, but I have had no success trying to fix it yet. I know this is not exactly a NEST issue, but I thought I would give it a try and ask here at the list. In case someone has already worked with the triplets rule and could point me out to what is/could be wrong in my implementation, I would very much appreciate it :) Thanks! best, Júlia

3 7

CreateLayer problem with dictionary
by xotazu＠cvc.uab.es 13 Apr '21

13 Apr '21

Hello, I am having a basic problem creating layers with topology (pyhton 3.6 and NEST 2.20.1). It always complains about the dictionary sent to CreateLayer, telling it is a number. The code below correctly prints <class 'dict'> but prints this error: Traceback (most recent call last): File "test/binary_gdf.py", line 9, in <module> kk=tp.CreateLayer({'extent': [1, 1],'rows': 20, 'columns': 20,'elements' : 'izhikevich','edge_wrap':True}) File "/home/neurobit/local/nest-py3/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/nest/topology/hl_api.py", line 650, in CreateLayer return topology_func('{ CreateLayer } Map', specs) File "/home/neurobit/local/nest-py3/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/nest/topology/ll_api.py", line 61, in topology_func return nest.ll_api.sli_func(slifunc, *args) File "/home/neurobit/local/nest-py3/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 182, in sli_func sli_run(slifun) # SLI support code to execute s on args File "/home/neurobit/local/nest-py3/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 132, in catching_sli_run raise exceptionCls(commandname, message) nest.lib.hl_api_exceptions.TypeMismatch: ('TypeMismatch in CreateLayer_D: Expected datatype: doubletype\nProvided datatype: integertype', 'TypeMismatch', <SLILiteral: CreateLayer_D>, ': Expected datatype: doubletype\nProvided datatype: integertype') Any help would be nice :-) Xavier ---- import nest import nest.topology as tp nest.SetKernelStatus({"overwrite_files": True}) my_dict = {'extent': [1, 1],'rows': 20, 'columns': 20,'elements' : 'izhikevich','edge_wrap':True} print(type(my_dict)) kk=tp.CreateLayer(my_dict)

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NEST Conference 2021 goes virtual — registration & call for contributions open
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 13 Apr '21

13 Apr '21

Dear all, The NEST Initiative is excited to invite everyone interested in Neural Simulation Technology and the NEST Simulator to the NEST Conference 2021. The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Monday/Tuesday 28/29 June 2021 followed by a virtual NEST User Hackathon until Friday 2 July, which offers the opportunity to deep-dive your own code with expert developers at your fingertips. Registration and submission of contributions are now open! We are inviting contributions to the conference, including plenary talks, "posters", breakout sessions and workshops on specific topics. Please register and submit your contribution(s) via the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference. Important dates 16 May 2021 — Deadline for submission of contributions and for NEST Initiative Membership applications 08 June 2021 — Notification of acceptance 21 June 2021 — Registration deadline 28 June 2021 — NEST Conference 2021 starts We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Dennis Terhorst & Anne Elfgen -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

1 0

Writing gdf files in binary format
by Xavier Otazu 13 Apr '21

13 Apr '21

Hello, I am trying to write spikedector data into .gdf files in binary format, but I cannot. I am setting the 'binary' param of the spikedetector to True (I checked it using nest.GetStatus) but files are written in ASCII. Do I need some special python package? I am using python 2.7.5 and NEST 2.18. Thanks in advance. Xavier Computer Vision Center<http://www.cvc.uab.cat> CONFIDENTIALITY WARNING<http://www.cvc.uab.es/?page_id=7475>

3 3

Data Science Morning Coffee
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 12 Apr '21

12 Apr '21

Dear all! Here the morning coffees are back in Outlook. We meet at https://nmbu.zoom.us/j/940209461. Best, Hans Ekkehard

2 2

Canceled: Data Science Morning Coffee
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 12 Apr '21

12 Apr '21

Dear all! Here the morning coffees are back in Outlook. We meet at https://nmbu.zoom.us/j/940209461. Best, Hans Ekkehard

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Canceled: Data Science Morning Coffee
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 12 Apr '21

12 Apr '21

Dear all! Here the morning coffees are back in Outlook. We meet at https://nmbu.zoom.us/j/940209461. Best, Hans Ekkehard

1 0

Re: Spatial grid + jitter
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 07 Apr '21

07 Apr '21

Dear Jasper, In NEST 3, this should be possible. Stine or Håkon, could you provide some advice? Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser On 06/04/2021, 12:05, "Albers, Jasper" <j.albers(a)fz-juelich.de<mailto:j.albers@fz-juelich.de>> wrote: Dear all, a colleague of mine (in CC) and myself are implementing a spatially structured network in NEST (using current NEST master). We are wondering how to generate a population of neurons that are distributed on a regular grid plus a random jitter. This means that we want to end up with a spatial distribution as can be seen in Figure 8 in the tutorial for creating spatially structured networks<https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/pynest_tutorial/p…>. Below that figure one finds a code snippet; however, we believe that this does not correspond to the distribution of Figure 8. In the documentation of NEST 2.20.1 we did find a code snippet that produces a jittered grid: import numpy as np # grid with jitter jit = 0.03 xs = np.arange(-0.5,.501,0.1) poss = [[x,y] for y in xs for x in xs] poss = [[p[0]+np.random.uniform(-jit,jit),p[1]+np.random.uniform(-jit,jit)] for p in poss] layer_dict_ex = {"positions": poss, "extent" : [1.1,1.1], "elements" : "iaf_psc_alpha"} As is apparent, this code does not make use of NEST internal random number generation but rather produces a list of positions that is then passed to a layer. Thus our question is: is it possible to create a jittered grid natively in NEST master? Best regards, Jasper and Anno ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 1

Spatial grid + jitter
by Albers, Jasper 06 Apr '21

06 Apr '21

Dear all, a colleague of mine (in CC) and myself are implementing a spatially structured network in NEST (using current NEST master). We are wondering how to generate a population of neurons that are distributed on a regular grid plus a random jitter. This means that we want to end up with a spatial distribution as can be seen in Figure 8 in the tutorial for creating spatially structured networks<https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/pynest_tutorial/p…>. Below that figure one finds a code snippet; however, we believe that this does not correspond to the distribution of Figure 8. In the documentation of NEST 2.20.1 we did find a code snippet that produces a jittered grid: import numpy as np # grid with jitter jit = 0.03 xs = np.arange(-0.5,.501,0.1) poss = [[x,y] for y in xs for x in xs] poss = [[p[0]+np.random.uniform(-jit,jit),p[1]+np.random.uniform(-jit,jit)] for p in poss] layer_dict_ex = {"positions": poss, "extent" : [1.1,1.1], "elements" : "iaf_psc_alpha"} As is apparent, this code does not make use of NEST internal random number generation but rather produces a list of positions that is then passed to a layer. Thus our question is: is it possible to create a jittered grid natively in NEST master? Best regards, Jasper and Anno ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 29 March 2021 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 29 March, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Today we have two potential topics for the in-depth discussion. The first is probably not that much to discuss, but we'd be interested in everyone's point of view. The second one touches many areas of the simulator and new scientific use-cases. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round In-depth discussion * CMake targets vs. CMake flags #1905 Microhackathon * Discuss dump/reload of connectivity (/not/ checkpointing!) The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-03-29-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Weight Recorder after network creation
by Benedikt Feldotto 16 Mar '21

16 Mar '21

Dear all, is it possible to assign the weight recorder to a synapse /after /the network is created? In the Neurorobotics Platform we allow the user to add devices (this can be additional nodes, or current inputs via SetStatus) after the creation of the network and it would be nice to also add recorders/readouts for spikes and weights. For spike recorders and multimeters this is possible as just a new node with a new connection is added. Thanks! Best Regards, Benedikt -- Benedikt Feldotto M.Sc. Research Assistant Human Brain Project - Neurorobotics Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems Room HB 2.02.20 Parkring 13 D-85748 Garching b. München Tel.: +49 89 289 17628 Mail: feldotto(a)in.tum.de https://www6.in.tum.de/en/people/benedikt-feldotto-msc/ www.neurorobotics.net

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 15 March 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 15 Mar '21

15 Mar '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 15 March, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Today this would for example be a discussion about the mechanisms of the Python module installation. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round In-depth discussion * Python installation of NEST, see [#1948](https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/issues/1948), [#1959](https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1959) The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-03-15-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Spike Frequency Generator
by Benedikt Feldotto 13 Mar '21

13 Mar '21

Dear all, maybe I am overlooking something, I am searching for a spike frequency generator without noise. I was looking at the poisson generator, but as far as I can see there is no parameter to adjust/remove the noise. Is there any node available that takes as input a frequency and outputs spikes at this given frequency? Thanks! Best, Benedikt -- Benedikt Feldotto M.Sc. Research Assistant Human Brain Project - Neurorobotics Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems Room HB 2.02.20 Parkring 13 D-85748 Garching b. München Tel.: +49 89 289 17628 Mail: feldotto(a)in.tum.de https://www6.in.tum.de/en/people/benedikt-feldotto-msc/ www.neurorobotics.net

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error std::bad_alloc: virtualbox
by Allen Rabayda 12 Mar '21

12 Mar '21

Dear Nest Community, Has anyone encountered a "bad_alloc" error like the one below and if so, any recommendations? It appears to be a VM memory issue but only using 21% of harddrive space (ref: below). My simulation successfully completes for 200,000 ms but errors out at 98% complete for 230,000 ms, 75% for 300,000 ms and 56% for 400,000 ms. I'm running on NEST 2.18.0 VirtualBox lubuntu 18.04 (ref: image of settings below). Thank you for any suggestions. Best Regards, --Allen ********************************************** **** Error Message ***** >> # SIMULATION >> nest.Simulate(300000) Nov 21 17:10:28 NodeManager::prepare_nodes [Info]: Preparing 684 nodes for simulation. Nov 21 17:10:28 MUSICManager::enter_runtime [Info]: Entering MUSIC runtime with tick = 1 ms Nov 21 17:10:28 SimulationManager::start_updating_ [Info]: Number of local nodes: 684 Simulation time (ms): 300000 Number of OpenMP threads: 2 Number of MPI processes: 1 75 %: network time: 223698.0 ms, realtime factor: 0.6277Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 3, in <module> File "/home/nest/work/nest-install/lib/python3.6/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 246, in stack_checker_func return f(*args, **kwargs) File "/home/nest/work/nest-install/lib/python3.6/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_simulation.py", line 66, in Simulate sr('ms Simulate') File "/home/nest/work/nest-install/lib/python3.6/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 132, in catching_sli_run raise exceptionCls(commandname, message) nest.ll_api.std::bad_alloc: ('std::bad_alloc in Simulate_d: C++ exception: std::bad_alloc', 'std::bad_alloc', <SLILiteral: Simulate_d>, ': C++ exception: std::bad_alloc') ******************************************** **** Folder Space on VirtualBox after Error **** nest@nestvm:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev 5.2G 0 5.2G 0% /dev tmpfs 1.1G 1.1M 1.1G 1% /run /dev/sda1 99G 20G 76G 21% / tmpfs 5.2G 0 5.2G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs 5.2G 0 5.2G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup SharedNest2 917G 447G 470G 49% /media/sf_SharedNest2 tmpfs 1.1G 16K 1.1G 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/sr0 74M 74M 0 100% /media/nest/VBox_GAs_6.0.10 *********************************** **** VirtualBox Settings ******* [image: image.png]

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C++ files for synapse models renamed
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 12 Mar '21

12 Mar '21

Dear NEST Developers, With #1972, which I just merged into the master branch, the C++ file names for the synapse models have changed from xyz_connection.h to xyz_synapse.h to make them consistent with the model names we have on the user side. Please pull this change into your branches as soon as possible. This is purely a behind-the-scenes change which does not affect users. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Writing an extension module with MyModule
by raymond.hawkins＠mail.utoronto.ca 11 Mar '21

11 Mar '21

Hello, I would like to add a kernel function to use with NEST topology, and am attempting to follow the instructions at http://nest.github.io/nest-simulator/extension_modules and https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/nest-2.20.1/topology/Topology_User…, which both mention the MyModule example in the examples folder of the NEST distributable. However, I can't find such an example in my local NEST files, or in the github repository (https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator). Is there another location I should be looking in for this example, or would someone be kind enough to send me the necessary files? Many thanks, Raymond Hawkins

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NEST performance assesment
by conrad.hillairet＠arm.com 09 Mar '21

09 Mar '21

Hello, I would like to assess the performances of NEST on different hardwares. And I have some questions if I may. I am thinking about reusing one of the benchmarks here : https://github.com/compneuronmbu/nest-benchmarks. Let's assume we have two nodes : A and B. A has N cores and B has M cores. I want to know if NEST runs faster for a particular test case on A or B. Hence I am fully filling the nodes with MPI ranks and OpenMP threads. If my understanding is correct, I need to set NVP = MPI ranks x OpenMP threads hence NVP = N on A and NVP = M on B. At this stage, for a lot of applications I would just say "The application runs faster on A or on B." . What worries me for NEST is that N and M might be different, hence different NVP for the simulation on A and B. From the documentation it says that for different NVP we have different results. So it gets me a bit worried to say that NEST is faster on A or B for a particular test case if I am not computing the same thing. I was wondering if you could confirm whether this is (or not) an issue and if you could give me some guidelines as regards benchmarking NEST please. That would be fantastic. This is also problematic if I want to do a strong scaling study on a single node for instance. I could run NEST on the smallest common multiple of N and M (let's call it P). This would mean P/N nodes of A and P/M nodes of B. I guess this would make sense for NEST. But this is not a single node comparison, this is more a core vs core comparison. Hope this makes sense. And please feel free to correct me if I said something wrong. I do not have a lot of experience with NEST. Best regards, Conrad Hillairet.

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Transcribing NEST mailing list questions?
by Robin Gilbert De Schepper 06 Mar '21

06 Mar '21

Hi, I have proposed the use of StackOverflow as a channel for questions. What does everyone think about it if I transcribe the mailing list questions and possibly their answers onto StackOverflow? (For fellow SO'ers, I will be making them Community Wiki questions as not to unfairly absorb all that future reputation 💸💰💵)

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Pull-request session
by Dennis Terhorst 01 Mar '21

01 Mar '21

Dear everyone, in today's meeting [1] we discussed the relations between the currently open pull-requests [2], and found that we would need a separate meeting to discuss some in more detail. To find an appropriate date I've put a few random slots into a poll [3]. Please fill your availability if you are interested to join, till tomorrow evening: --> https://nuudel.digitalcourage.de/zreAHis9t4BPC5Rl Anyone involved with any of the topics or interested to help testing/proof-reading/…, is very welcome to join. Feel free to have a look! Some discussions will – by their nature – however be quite developer oriented. I'll send connection details to participants when a suitable slot is found. Best, Dennis [1]: https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-03-01-Open-NEST-Developer-… [2]: https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pulls [3]: https://nuudel.digitalcourage.de/zreAHis9t4BPC5Rl -- Dipl.-Phys. Dennis Terhorst Coordinator Software Development Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Computational and Systems Neuroscience & Theoretical Neuroscience, Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Jülich Research Centre, Member of the Helmholz Association and JARA 52425 Jülich, Germany Building 15.22 Room 4004 Phone +49 2461 61-85062 Fax +49 2461 61- 9460 d.terhorst(a)fz-juelich.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Restructured documentation build system: please update open PRs!
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 01 Mar '21

01 Mar '21

Dear NEST Developers! With the merge of #1843 a few moments ago, we have implemented a significant change in the way NEST documentation is built (thank you, Jochen!). Please merge the current master in all open PRs to avoid complications. With the new setup, documentation can be built with `make doc` and will be built in the build directory and can also be installed. To build the documentation, you will need a range of Python packages. Please see doc/requirements.txt for what is needed. We will continue to make improvements to the documentation build system, but these will be minor. If you have any open PRs, please merge the current master as soon as possible into your branches. Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday 1 March 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 01 Mar '21

01 Mar '21

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday 1 March, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Today this would for example be a discussion about changing the minimum required Python version. Agenda Welcome Review of NEST User Mailing List Project team round In-depth discussion Raise minimal Python version required: hike to 3.7 or 3.8 (see #1932 <https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/1932#issuecomment-782710952>)? The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2021-03-01-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Error when plotting masks with azimuthal angle
by Arturo del Cerro Vergara 26 Feb '21

26 Feb '21

Hello, my name is Arturo and I think I found a bug when calling PlotTargets using the mask plot option with an azimuthal angle > 0. Below I give an example very easy to follow that shows that although the targets are plotted correctly, the mask is not. Correct me if I am doing anything wrong please. I attach an image of the results also. Thank you, Arturo. Code: l = topo.CreateLayer({'rows': 21, 'columns': 21, 'elements': 'iaf_psc_alpha'}) conndict = {'connection_type': 'divergent', 'mask': {'rectangular': {'lower_left': [-0.3, -0.12], 'upper_right': [-0.05, 0.12], 'azimuth_angle': 45.}}, 'kernel': 1.0} topo.ConnectLayers(l, l, conndict) fig = topo.PlotLayer(l, nodesize=40) ctr = topo.FindCenterElement(l) topo.PlotTargets(ctr, l, fig=fig, mask=conndict['mask'], src_size=250, tgt_color='red', tgt_size=20) [image: Captura.PNG]

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NEST Developers / Github Checks: Please merge master into open PRs/branches
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Dear NEST Developers! Thanks to Lekshmi's great work, we can now use Github checks for continuous integration testing. Please merge master into your open PRs/branches to make sure your contributions run the Github checks. We will run Github checks and Travis checks in parallel for now. Best Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Help on models from the command line?
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 24 Feb '21

24 Feb '21

Hi! Just a question, I may have ovelooked something. If I use NEST help to get information about a neuron model, I get the message that there is no help: In [28]: nest.help('iaf_psc_alpha') Sorry, there is no help for 'iaf_psc_alpha'. But we have all the nice model documentation. Have I overlooked something or do we need to upgrade help()? Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Re: Nest on parallel computer
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 20 Feb '21

20 Feb '21

Dear Johan, You do not tell us what the “result” number is that you print out. But I notice that the value you get when running with 10 MPI processes on PDC, is about 10 times smaller than the value you see with one process on your PC. I’ll venture a guess and assume you have a network of N neurons which you connect to one spike detector. You simulate, read out the number of spikes and convert it into a firing rate, dividing number of spikes by N * simtime. In an MPI-parallel simulation, the spike detector on each MPI process only gets the spikes of neurons simulated on that MPI process. If you still divide by the full number of neurons to compute the rate, one would expect exactly the behavior you observe. In the future, please provide more details about what you are doing, so we can provide more pointed advice. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser On 19/02/2021, 22:20, "JOHAN LILJEFORS" <JOHAN(a)liljefors.eu<mailto:JOHAN@liljefors.eu>> wrote: Dear Nest users, I am fairly new to Nest having used it only for a few months and it has been working without any problems on my PC running Linux. Recently I was given access to a PDC where I have been submitting jobs but I am encountering a problem with my model. I'm running Python 3.7.3 and Nest 2.18. On both my PC and on the PDC, I run the following python script: ------------------------------ import Nest For counter in range(0,10): nest.resetkernel() ___run___script print(result) ------------------------------ I execute this with "srun -n=1 python3 run.py" This outputs 10 numbers, ranging from 0.35-0.4. On the PDC, i run the same scripts but without the for loop: ------------------------------ import Nest nest.resetkernel() ___run___script print(result) ------------------------------ I execute this with "srun -n=10 python3 run.py" this outputs 10 numbers, but this time much smaller around 0.04. I am not doing any file operations, nor any MPI communication between the tasks and I am genuinely confused as to how submitting multiple tasks can yield a different result than a single task. Has anyone encountered anything similar? Regards Johan Liljefors

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Nest on parallel computer
by JOHAN LILJEFORS 19 Feb '21

19 Feb '21

Dear Nest users, I am fairly new to Nest having used it only for a few months and it has been working without any problems on my PC running Linux. Recently I was given access to a PDC where I have been submitting jobs but I am encountering a problem with my model. I'm running Python 3.7.3 and Nest 2.18. On both my PC and on the PDC, I run the following python script: ------------------------------ import Nest For counter in range(0,10): nest.resetkernel() ___run___script print(result) ------------------------------ I execute this with "srun -n=1 python3 run.py" This outputs 10 numbers, ranging from 0.35-0.4. On the PDC, i run the same scripts but without the for loop: ------------------------------ import Nest nest.resetkernel() ___run___script print(result) ------------------------------ I execute this with "srun -n=10 python3 run.py" this outputs 10 numbers, but this time much smaller around 0.04. I am not doing any file operations, nor any MPI communication between the tasks and I am genuinely confused as to how submitting multiple tasks can yield a different result than a single task. Has anyone encountered anything similar? Regards Johan Liljefors

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SAVE THE DATE for the virtual NEST Conference 2021
by Anne Elfgen 18 Feb '21

18 Feb '21

Dear Colleagues, The NEST Initiative is excited to invite everyone interested in Neural Simulation Technology and the NEST Simulator to the NEST Conference 2021! The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. This year's conference willagaintake place as a *virtual conference*on Monday/Tuesday *28**/**29 June **2021*followed by a virtual NESTUserHackathon until Friday 2 July, whichoffers the opportunity to deep-dive your own code with expert developers at your fingertips. For more information please visit the conference website _*https://nest-simulator.org/conference*_ <https://nest-simulator.org/conference> We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans EkkehardPlesser, Dennis Terhorst & Anne Elfgen

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Nest compile on Piz-Daint
by Sergio Solinas 17 Feb '21

17 Feb '21

Dear NEST Users, I'm trying to get NEST up and running on Piz-Daint. I could manage to have it fully compiled and installed with python bindings, MPI, GSL and Boost. However, simulations start but get killed returning a std::bad_alloc. make installcheck also fails. Did anyone managed to have it installed on this HPC? Best regards, Sergio MG Solinas Dip. di Scienze Biomediche Università di Sassari Viale San Pietro 23 07100 - Sassari The NEURON School <https://www.neuronschool.org/> -- -- *Dona il 5x1000* all'Università degli Studi di Sassaricodice fiscale: 00196350904

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neuron parameter as array?
by Cristiano Alessandro 16 Feb '21

16 Feb '21

Hi all, I am writing a new neuron model using nestml and then I modify the C++ code. I am having a hard time defining an input parameter of the neuron as an array of numbers. Is this even possible? Thanks. Regards Cristiano

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