A Chan Dietary Intervention Enhances Executive Functions and Anterior Cingulate Activity in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Executive dysfunctions have been found to be related to repetitive/disinhibited behaviors and social deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study aims to investigate the potential effect of a Shaolin-medicine-based dietary modification on improving executive functions and behavioral symptoms of ASD and exploring the possible underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. Twenty-four children with ASD were randomly assigned into the experimental (receiving dietary modification for one month) and the control (no modification) groups. Each child was assessed on his/her executive functions, behavioral problems based on parental ratings, and event-related electroencephalography (EEG) activity during a response-monitoring task before and after the one month. The experimental group demonstrated significantly improved mental flexibility and inhibitory control after the diet modification, which continued to have a large effect size within the low-functioning subgroup. Such improvements coincided with positive evaluations by their parents on social communication abilities and flexible inhibitory control of daily behaviors and significantly enhanced event-related EEG activity at the rostral and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, the control group did not show any significant improvements. These positive outcomes of a one-month dietary modification on children with ASD have implicated its potential clinical applicability for patients with executive function deficits

A Chan Dietary Intervention Enhances Executive Functions and Anterior Cingulate Activity in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Executive dysfunctions have been found to be related to repetitive/disinhibited behaviors and social deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study aims to investigate the potential effect of a Shaolin-medicine-based dietary modification on improving executive functions and behavioral symptoms of ASD and exploring the possible underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. Twenty-four children with ASD were randomly assigned into the experimental (receiving dietary modification for one month) and the control (no modification) groups. Each child was assessed on his/her executive functions, behavioral problems based on parental ratings, and event-related electroencephalography (EEG) activity during a response-monitoring task before and after the one month. The experimental group demonstrated significantly improved mental flexibility and inhibitory control after the diet modification, which continued to have a large effect size within the low-functioning subgroup. Such improvements coincided with positive evaluations by their parents on social communication abilities and flexible inhibitory control of daily behaviors and significantly enhanced event-related EEG activity at the rostral and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, the control group did not show any significant improvements. These positive outcomes of a one-month dietary modification on children with ASD have implicated its potential clinical applicability for patients with executive function deficits

Performance of various correlation measures in quantum renormalization-group method: A case study of quantum phase transition

We have investigated quantum phase transition employing the quantum renormalization group (QRG) method while in most previous literature barely entanglement (concurrence) has been demonstrated. However, it is now well known that entanglement is not the only signature of quantum correlations and a variety of computable measures have been developed to characterize quantum correlations in the composite systems. As an illustration, two cases are elaborated: one dimensional anisotropic (i) XXZ model and (ii) XY model, with various measures of quantum correlations, including quantum discord (QD), geometric discord (GD), measure-induced disturbance (MID), measure-induced nonlocality (MIN) and violation of Bell inequalities (eg. CHSH inequality). We have proved that all these correlation measures can effectively detect the quantum critical points associated with quantum phase transitions (QPT) after several iterations of the renormalization in both cases. Nonetheless, it is shown that some of their dynamical behaviors are not totally similar with entanglement and even when concurrence vanishes there still exists some kind of quantum correlations which is not captured by entanglement. Intriguingly, CHSH inequality can never be violated in the whole iteration procedure, which indicates block-block entanglement can not revealed by the CHSH inequality. Moreover, the nonanalytic and scaling behaviors of Bell violation have also been discussed in detail. As a byproduct, we verify that measure-induced disturbance is exactly equal to the quantum discord measured by \sigma_z for general X-structured states.Comment: Published version. 10 pages, 8 figure

Dejian Mind-Body Intervention Improves the Cognitive Functions of a Child with Autism

There has been increasing empirical evidence for the enhancing effects of Dejian Mind-Body Intervention (DMBI), a traditional Chinese Shaolin healing approach, on human frontal brain activity/functions, including patients with autism who are well documented to have frontal lobe problems. This study aims to compare the effects of DMBI with a conventional behavioural/cognitive intervention (CI) on enhancing the executive functions and memory of a nine-year-old boy with low-functioning autism (KY) and to explore possible underlying neural mechanism using EEG theta cordance. At post-one-month DMBI, KY's inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and memory functioning have significantly improved from “severely-to-moderately impaired” to “within-normal” range. This improvement was not observed from previous 12-month CI. Furthermore, KY showed increased cordance gradually extending from the anterior to the posterior brain region, suggesting possible neural mechanism underlying his cognitive improvement. These findings have implicated potential applicability of DMBI as a rehabilitation program for patients with severe frontal lobe and/or memory disorders

Thermal and magnetic properties of a low-temperature antiferromagnet Ce4_4Pt12_{12}Sn25_{25}

We report specific heat ($C$) and magnetization ($M$) of single crystalline Ce$_4$Pt$_{12}$Sn$_{25}$ at temperature down to $\sim$50mK and in fields up to 3T. $C/T$ exhibits a sharp anomaly at 180mK, with a large $\Delta C/T\sim$30J/molK$^2$-Ce, which, together with the corresponding cusp-like magnetization anomaly, indicates an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state with a N\'eel temperature $T_N$=180mK. Numerical calculations based on a Heisenberg model reproduce both zero-field $C$ and $M$ data, thus placing Ce$_4$Pt$_{12}$Sn$_{25}$ in the weak exchange coupling $J<J_c$ limit of the Doniach diagram, with a very small Kondo scale $T_K\ll T_N$. Magnetic field suppresses the AFM state at $H^*\approx$0.7T, much more effectively than expected from the Heisenberg model, indicating additional effects possibly due to frustration or residual Kondo screening.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Hall Effect of La2/3(Ca,Pb)1/3MnO3 Single Crystals near the Critical Temperature

The Hall resistivity rho_{xy} of a La_{2/3}(Ca,Pb)_{1/3}MnO_3 single crystal has been measured as a function of temperature and field. The overall behavior is similar to that observed previously in thin-films. At 5 K, rho_{xy} is positive and linear in field, indicating that the anomalous contribution $R_S$ is negligible. However, the effective carrier density in a free electron model is n_{eff}=2.4 holes/Mn, even larger than the 0.85-1.9 holes/Mn reported for thin-films and far larger than the 0.33 holes/Mn expected from the doping level. As temperature increases, a strong, negative contribution to rho_{xy} appears, that we ascribe to R_S. Using detailed magnetization data, we separate the ordinary (\propto B) and anomalous (\propto M) contributions. Below T_C, R_S \propto rho_{xx}, indicating that magnetic skew scattering is the dominant mechanism in the metallic ferromagnetic regime. At and above the resistivity-peak temperature, we find that rho_{xy}/rho_{xx}M is a constant, independent of temperature and field. This implies that the anomalous Hall coefficient is proportional to the magnetoresistance. A different explanation based on two fluid model is also presented.Comment: revtex, 11 pages, 4 figure

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor isolates from Mozambique that harbour the classical CTX prophage.

Vibrio cholerae O1 isolates belonging to the Ogawa serotype, El Tor biotype, harbouring the classical CTX prophage were first isolated in Mozambique in 2004. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis using nine genetic loci showed that the Mozambique isolates have the same sequence type (ST) as O1 El Tor N16961, a representative of the current seventh cholera pandemic. Analysis of the CTX prophage in the Mozambique isolates indicated that there is one type of rstR in these isolates: the classical CTX prophage. It was also found that the ctxB-rstR-rstA-rstB-phs-cep fragment was PCR-amplified from these isolates, which indicates the presence of a tandem repeat of the classical CTX prophage in the genome of the Mozambique isolates. The possible origin of these isolates and the presence of the tandem repeat of the classical prophage in them implicate the presence of the classical CTX phage

A Chinese Chan-Based Mind-Body Intervention Improves Sleep on Patients with Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Sleep disturbance is a common problem associated with depression, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a more common behavioral intervention for sleep problems. The present study compares the effect of a newly developed Chinese Chan-based intervention, namely Dejian mind-body intervention (DMBI), with the CBT on improving sleep problems of patients with depression. Seventy-five participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to receive 10 weekly sessions of CBT or DMBI, or placed on a waitlist. Measurements included ratings by psychiatrists who were blinded to the experimental design, and a standardized questionnaire on sleep quantity and quality was obtained before and after the 10-week intervention. Results indicated that both the CBT and DMBI groups demonstrated significantly reduced sleep onset latency and wake time after sleep onset (effect size range = 0.46–1.0, P ≤ 0.05) as compared to nonsignificant changes in the waitlist group (P > 0.1). Furthermore, the DMBI group, but not the CBT or waitlist groups, demonstrated significantly reduced psychiatrist ratings on overall sleep problems (effect size = 1.0, P = 0.00) and improved total sleep time (effect size = 0.8, P = 0.05) after treatment. The present findings suggest that a Chinese Chan-based mind-body intervention has positive effects on improving sleep in individuals with depression