Asymptotic correlation functions and FFLO signature for the one-dimensional attractive Hubbard model

We study the long-distance asymptotic behavior of various correlation functions for the one-dimensional (1D) attractive Hubbard model in a partially polarized phase through the Bethe ansatz and conformal field theory approaches. We particularly find the oscillating behavior of these correlation functions with spatial power-law decay, of which the pair (spin) correlation function oscillates with a frequency $\Delta k_F$ ($2\Delta k_F$). Here $\Delta k_F=\pi(n_\uparrow-n_\downarrow)$ is the mismatch in the Fermi surfaces of spin-up and spin-down particles. Consequently, the pair correlation function in momentum space has peaks at the mismatch $k=\Delta k_F$, which has been observed in recent numerical work on this model. These singular peaks in momentum space together with the spatial oscillation suggest an analog of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in the 1D Hubbard model. The parameter $\beta$ representing the lattice effect becomes prominent in critical exponents which determine the power-law decay of all correlation functions. We point out that the backscattering of unpaired fermions and bound pairs within their own Fermi points gives a microscopic origin of the FFLO pairing in 1D.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, published version, a series of study on the 1D attractive Hubbard model, few typos were corrected, references were added, also see arXiv:1708.07784 and arXiv:1708.0777

Attentive Aspect Modeling for Review-aware Recommendation

In recent years, many studies extract aspects from user reviews and integrate them with ratings for improving the recommendation performance. The common aspects mentioned in a user's reviews and a product's reviews indicate indirect connections between the user and product. However, these aspect-based methods suffer from two problems. First, the common aspects are usually very sparse, which is caused by the sparsity of user-product interactions and the diversity of individual users' vocabularies. Second, a user's interests on aspects could be different with respect to different products, which are usually assumed to be static in existing methods. In this paper, we propose an Attentive Aspect-based Recommendation Model (AARM) to tackle these challenges. For the first problem, to enrich the aspect connections between user and product, besides common aspects, AARM also models the interactions between synonymous and similar aspects. For the second problem, a neural attention network which simultaneously considers user, product and aspect information is constructed to capture a user's attention towards aspects when examining different products. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments show that AARM can effectively alleviate the two aforementioned problems and significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art recommendation methods on top-N recommendation task.Comment: Camera-ready manuscript for TOI

Suicide Communication on Social Media and Its Psychological Mechanisms: An Examination of Chinese Microblog Users

Background: This study aims to examine the characteristics of people who talk about suicide on Chinese microblogs (referred to as Weibo suicide communication (WSC)), and the psychological antecedents of such behaviors. Methods: An online survey was conducted on Weibo users. Differences in psychological and social demographic characteristics between those who exhibited WSC and those who did not were examined. Three theoretical models were proposed to explain the psychological mechanisms of WSC and their fitness was examined by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results: 12.03% of our respondents exhibited WSC in the past 12 months. The WSC group was significantly younger and less educated, preferred using blogs and online forums for expressing themselves, and reported significantly greater suicide ideation, negative affectivity, and vulnerable personality compared to non-WSC users. SEM examinations found that Weibo users with higher negative affectivity or/and suicidal ideation, who were also using blogs and forums more, exhibited a significantly higher possibility of WSC. Conclusion: Weibo users who are at greater suicide risk are more likely to talk about suicide on Weibo. WSC is a sign of negative affectivity or suicide ideation, and should be responded to with emotional support and suicide prevention services.published_or_final_versio

Cutaneous expression of growth-associated protein 43 is not a compelling marker for human nerve regeneration in carpal tunnel syndrome.

Growth-associated protein 43 (GAP-43) has long been used as a marker for nerve regeneration following nerve injury, with numerous in vitro and animal studies showing its upregulation in regenerating neurons. In humans, expression of GAP-43 has predominantly been examined in skin biopsies from patients with peripheral neuropathies; with several studies showing a reduction in GAP-43 immunoreactive cutaneous nerve fibres. However, it remains elusive whether cutaneous GAP-43 is a valid marker for human nerve regeneration. Here, we present a cohort of 22 patients with electrodiagnostically confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), used as a model system for focal nerve injury and neural regeneration after decompression surgery. We evaluate GAP-43 immunoreactivity and RNA expression levels in finger skin biopsies taken before and 6 months after surgery, relative to healthy controls. We further classify patients as 'regenerators' or 'non-regenerators' based on post-surgical epidermal re-innervation. We demonstrate that patients with CTS have lower GAP-43 positive intra-epidermal nerve fibre density (IENFD) before surgery than healthy controls. However, this difference disappears when normalising for total IENFD. Of note, we found surgery did not change GAP-43 expression in IENF, with no differences both in patients who were classified as regenerators and non-regenerators. We also did not identify pre-post surgical differences in cutaneous GAP-43 gene expression or associations with regeneration. These findings suggest cutaneous GAP-43 may not be a compelling marker for nerve regeneration in humans

Swimming exercise attenuates mechanical hypersensitivity and mitigates peripheral nerve degeneration in rats with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN)

Background: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of swimming exercise in alleviating mechanical hypersensitivity and peripheral nerve degeneration associated with a pre-clinical model of painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN). Methods: This study is a pre-clinical study conducted using the streptozocin (STZ)-induced PDN rat model. Rats were randomly allocated to three groups: a vehicle group of non-diabetic rats (Vehicle, n = 9), a group of rats with PDN (PDN, n = 8), and a group of rats with PDN that performed a swimming exercise program (PDN-SW, n = 10). The swimming exercise program included daily 30-minute swimming exercise, 5 days per week for 4 weeks. Von Frey testing was used to monitor hindpaw mechanical sensitivity over 4 weeks. Assessment of cutaneous peripheral nerve fiber integrity was performed after the 4-week study period via immunohistochemistry for protein gene product 9.5-positive (PGP9.5+) intra-epidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) in hind-paw skin biopsies by a blinded investigator. Results: The results showed that swimming exercise mitigated but did not fully reverse mechanical hypersensitivity in rats with PDN. Immunohistochemical testing revealed that the rats in the PDN-SW group retained higher PGP9.5+ IENFD compared to the PDN group but did not reach normal levels of the Vehicle group. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that swimming exercise can mitigate mechanical hypersensitivity and degeneration of peripheral nerve fibers in rats with experimental PDN

On the uniqueness of LpL_p-Minkowski problems: the constant pp-curvature case in R3\mathbb{R}^3

We study the $C^4$ smooth convex bodies $\mathbb{K}\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ satisfying $K(x)=u(x)^{1-p}$, where $x\in\mathbb{S}^n$, $K$ is the Gauss curvature of $\partial\mathbb{K}$, $u$ is the support function of $\mathbb{K}$, and $p$ is a constant. In the case of $n=2$, either when $p\in[-1,0]$ or when $p\in(0,1)$ in addition to a pinching condition, we show that $\mathbb{K}$ must be the unit ball. This partially answers a conjecture of Lutwak, Yang, and Zhang about the uniqueness of the $L_p$-Minkowski problem in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Moreover, we give an explicit pinching constant depending only on $p$ when $p\in(0,1)$.Comment: references update

The SNP rs961253 in 20p12.3 Is Associated with Colorectal Cancer Risk: A Case-Control Study and a Meta-Analysis of the Published Literature

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs961253 located in 20p12, was firstly described to be associated with the increased risk of CRC in a genome-wide association study; however, more recent replication studies yielded controversial results. Methodology/Principal Findings: A hospital-based case-control study in a Chinese population was firstly performed, and then a meta-analysis combining the current and previously published studies were conducted to explore the real effect of rs961253 in CRC susceptibility. In the Chinese population including 641 cases and 1037 controls, per-A-allele conferred an OR of 1.60 (95 % CI = 1.26–2.02) under additive model. In the meta-analysis including 29859 cases and 29696 controls, per-Aallele have an OR of 1.13 (95 % CI = 1.09–1.18) under a random-effects model due to heterogeneity (P = 0.019). Nevertheless, the heterogeneity can be totally explained by ethnicity, with the tau 2 reduced to 0 after including ethnicity in metaregression model. In stratified analysis by ethnicity, per-A-allele had ORs of 1.34 (95 % CI = 1.20–1.50) and 1.11 (95% CI = 1.08–1.14) for Asian and European, respectively, without heterogeneity. Modest influence of each study was observed on overall estimate in sensitive analysis, and evident tendency to significant association was seen in cumulative analysis over time, together indicating the robust stability of the current results