Neurobiological Changes of Schizotypy: Evidence From Both Volume-Based Morphometric Analysis and Resting-State Functional Connectivity

The current study sought to examine the underlying brain changes in individuals with high schizotypy by integrating networks derived from brain structural and functional imaging. Individuals with high schizotypy (n = 35) and low schizotypy (n = 34) controls were screened using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and underwent brain structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging on a 3T scanner. Voxel-based morphometric analysis and graph theory-based functional network analysis were conducted. Individuals with high schizotypy showed reduced gray matter (GM) density in the insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus. The graph theoretical analysis showed that individuals with high schizotypy showed similar global properties in their functional networks as low schizotypy individuals. Several hubs of the functional network were identified in both groups, including the insula, the lingual gyrus, the postcentral gyrus, and the rolandic operculum. More hubs in the frontal lobe and fewer hubs in the occipital lobe were identified in individuals with high schizotypy. By comparing the functional connectivity between clusters with abnormal GM density and the whole brain, individuals with high schizotypy showed weaker functional connectivity between the left insula and the putamen, but stronger connectivity between the cerebellum and the medial frontal gyrus. Taken together, our findings suggest that individuals with high schizotypy present changes in terms of GM and resting-state functional connectivity, especially in the frontal lobe

Disorder Operator and R\'enyi Entanglement Entropy of Symmetric Mass Generation

In recent years a consensus has gradually been reached that the previously proposed deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) for spin-1/2 systems, an archetypal example of quantum phase transition beyond the classic Landau's paradigm, actually does not correspond to a true unitary conformal field theory (CFT). In this work we carefully investigate another type of quantum phase transition supposedly beyond the similar classic paradigm, the so called ``symmetric mass generation" (SMG) transition proposed in recent years. We employ the sharp diagnosis including the scaling of disorder operator and R\'enyi entanglement entropy in large-scale lattice model quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our results strongly suggest that the SMG transition is indeed an unconventional quantum phase transition and it should correspond to a true $(2+1)d$ unitary CFT.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Cognitive Information Processing

Contains reports on four research projects.Providence Gravure, Inc. (Grant)International Business Machines Corporation (Grant

Cognitive Information Processing

Contains reports on four research projects.Associated Press (Grant)Providence Gravure, Inc. (Grant)Taylor Publishing Company (Grant

Ruling out real-valued standard formalism of quantum theory

Standard quantum theory was formulated with complex-valued Schrodinger equations, wave functions, operators, and Hilbert spaces. Previous work attempted to simulate quantum systems using only real numbers by exploiting an enlarged Hilbert space. A fundamental question arises: are complex numbers really necessary in the standard formalism of quantum theory? To answer this question, a quantum game has been developed to distinguish standard quantum theory from its real-number analog by revealing a contradiction in the maximum game scores between a high-fidelity multi-qubit quantum experiment and players using only real-number quantum theory. Here, using superconducting qubits, we faithfully experimentally implement the quantum game based on entanglement swapping with a state-of-the-art fidelity of 0.952(1), which beats the real-number bound of 7.66 by 43 standard deviations. Our results disprove the real-number formulation and establish the indispensable role of complex numbers in the standard quantum theory.Comment: submitted on March 202

Penile prosthesis implantation in Chinese patients with severe erectile dysfunction: 10-year experience

We retrospectively evaluated the clinical outcome of penile prosthesis implantation (PPI) in Chinese patients with severe erectile dysfunction (SED). From July 2000 to December 2011, 224 patients (mean age: 35.9±11.8 years, range: 20–75 years) with SED underwent PPI by experienced surgeon according to standard PPI procedure at our centre. A malleable prosthesis (AMS 650) was implanted in 45 cases (20.1%), and a three-piece inflatable prosthesis (AMS 700 CXM or AMS 700 CXR) was implanted in 179 cases (79.9%). Surgical outcomes, including postoperative complications, clinical efficacy and couple satisfaction, were evaluated over than 6 months postoperatively using medical record abstraction, IIEF-5, quality of life (QoL) scores, and the patient/partner sexual satisfaction score proposed by Bhojwani et al. Of the 224 patients eligible for the study, 201 subjects (89.7%) completed follow-up. All of patients could perform sexual intercourse post PPI with the mean postoperative IIEF-5 and QoL scores were 20.02±2.32 and 5.28±0.76, respectively, which were significantly improved compared with the preoperative scores (6.29±1.5 and 2.13±0.84, P<0.01). Of the 201 men, mechanical malfunction occurred in four cases (2.0%) and three cases were re-implanted new device, and two cases (1.0%) developed a mild curvature of the penis. Scrotal erosion with infection occurred in one case with diabetes mellitus (0.5%) and required complete removal of the implanted AMS 700 CXM. Satisfactory sexual intercourse at least twice per month was reported by 178 men (88.6%), and overall satisfaction with the PPI surgery was reported by 89.0% of men and 82.5% of partners. Patient satisfaction in the three-piece inflatable prosthesis group was higher than in the malleable prosthesis group (P<0.05). Satisfaction, however, between the types of prostheses, did not differ in the partner survey. PPI is a safe and effective treatment option for Chinese patients with SED and experienced surgeon perform PPI according to standard PPI procedure could reduce the postoperative complications of PPI and could improve patient satisfaction ratio and QoL

Nitric oxide from inflammatory origin impairs neural stem cell proliferation by inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor signaling

Neuroinflammation is characterized by activation of microglial cells, followed by production of nitric oxide (NO), which may have different outcomes on neurogenesis, favoring or inhibiting this process. In the present study, we investigated how the inflammatory mediator NO can affect proliferation of neural stem cells (NSCs), and explored possible mechanisms underlying this effect. We investigated which mechanisms are involved in the regulation of NSC proliferation following treatment with an inflammatory stimulus (lipopolysaccharide plus IFN-gamma), using a culture system of subventricular zone (SVZ)-derived NSCs mixed with microglia cells obtained from wild-type mice (iNOS(+/+)) or from iNOS knockout mice (iNOS(-/-)). We found an impairment of NSC cell proliferation in iNOS(+/+) mixed cultures, which was not observed in iNOS(-/-) mixed cultures. Furthermore, the increased release of NO by activated iNOS(+/+) microglial cells decreased the activation of the ERK/MAPK signaling pathway, which was concomitant with an enhanced nitration of the EGF receptor. Preventing nitrogen reactive species formation with MnTBAP, a scavenger of peroxynitrite (ONOO-), or using the ONOO- degradation catalyst FeTMPyP cell proliferation and ERK signaling were restored to basal levels in iNOS(+/+) mixed cultures. Moreover, exposure to the NO donor NOC-18 (100 mu M), for 48 h, inhibited SVZ-derived NSC proliferation. Regarding the antiproliferative effect of NO, we found that NOC-18 caused the impairment of signaling through the ERK/MAPK pathway, which may be related to increased nitration of the EGF receptor in NSC. Using MnTBAP nitration was prevented, maintaining ERK signaling, rescuing NSC proliferation. We show that NO from inflammatory origin leads to a decreased function of the EGF receptor, which compromised proliferation of NSC. We also demonstrated that NO-mediated nitration of the EGF receptor caused a decrease in its phosphorylation, thus preventing regular proliferation signaling through the ERK/MAPK pathway.Foundation for Science and Technology, (FCT, Portugal); COMPETE; FEDER [PEst-C/SAU/LA0001/2013-2014, PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013-2014, PTDC/SAU-NEU/102612/2008, PTDC/NEU-OSD/0473/2012]; FCT, Portugal [SERH/BPD/78901/2011, SERH/BD/38127/2007, SFRH/BD/77903/2011, SFRH/BD/79308/2011]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fusion of Color Doppler and Magnetic Resonance Images of the Heart

This study was designed to establish and analyze color Doppler and magnetic resonance fusion images of the heart, an approach for simultaneous testing of cardiac pathological alterations, performance, and hemodynamics. Ten volunteers were tested in this study. The echocardiographic images were produced by Philips IE33 system and the magnetic resonance images were generated from Philips 3.0-T system. The fusion application was implemented on MATLAB platform utilizing image processing technology. The fusion image was generated from the following steps: (1) color Doppler blood flow segmentation, (2) image registration of color Doppler and magnetic resonance imaging, and (3) image fusion of different image types. The fusion images of color Doppler blood flow and magnetic resonance images were implemented by MATLAB programming in our laboratory. Images and videos were displayed and saved as AVI and JPG. The present study shows that the method we have developed can be used to fuse color flow Doppler and magnetic resonance images of the heart. We believe that the method has the potential to: fill in information missing from the ultrasound or MRI alone, show structures outside the field of view of the ultrasound through MR imaging, and obtain complementary information through the fusion of the two imaging methods (structure from MRI and function from ultrasound)

Experimental measurement-based quantum computing beyond the cluster-state model

The paradigm of measurement-based quantum computation opens new experimental avenues to realize a quantum computer and deepens our understanding of quantum physics. Measurement-based quantum computation starts from a highly entangled universal resource state. For years, clusters states have been the only known universal resources. Surprisingly, a novel framework namely quantum computation in correlation space has opened new routes to implement measurement-based quantum computation based on quantum states possessing entanglement properties different from cluster states. Here we report an experimental demonstration of every building block of such a model. With a four-qubit and a six-qubit state as distinct from cluster states, we have realized a universal set of single-qubit rotations, two-qubit entangling gates and further Deutsch's algorithm. Besides being of fundamental interest, our experiment proves in-principle the feasibility of universal measurement-based quantum computation without using cluster states, which represents a new approach towards the realization of a quantum computer.Comment: 26 pages, final version, comments welcom