Formation of Nanofoam carbon and re-emergence of Superconductivity in compressed CaC6

Pressure can tune material's electronic properties and control its quantum state, making some systems present disconnected superconducting region as observed in iron chalcogenides and heavy fermion CeCu2Si2. For CaC6 superconductor (Tc of 11.5 K), applying pressure first Tc increases and then suppresses and the superconductivity of this compound is eventually disappeared at about 18 GPa. Here, we report a theoretical finding of the re-emergence of superconductivity in heavily compressed CaC6. The predicted phase III (space group Pmmn) with formation of carbon nanofoam is found to be stable at wide pressure range with a Tc up to 14.7 K at 78 GPa. Diamond-like carbon structure is adhered to the phase IV (Cmcm) for compressed CaC6 after 126 GPa, which has bad metallic behavior, indicating again departure from superconductivity. Re-emerged superconductivity in compressed CaC6 paves a new way to design new-type superconductor by inserting metal into nanoporous host lattice.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, and 4 table

Clinical study on the optic nerve protection of calcium dobesilate in treating glaucoma

AIM:To observe the protective effect of calcium dobesilate on optic nerve of glaucoma patients whose intraocular pressure has been under control through operation.<p>METHODS: A total of 78 inpatients(89 eyes)with glaucoma in this hospital from January, 2011 to February, 2012 were enrolled. All patients were randomly divided into treatment group and control group with 6 months in a course. The visual acuity, visual field(mean sensibility, MS), and intraocular pressure were measured at the experiment onset and 6 months later to evaluate the clinical effect.<p>RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in the visual acuity, intraocular pressure between the two groups neither at the experiment onset nor after 6 months(<i>P</i>>0.05). The mean sensibility(MS)of the treatment group was obviously improved(14.56±5.03 <i>vs </i>18.9±5.77, <i>P</i><0.05)with statistically significant differences before and after the treatment, while the MS remained unchanged in the control group(14.75±5.17 <i>vs </i>13.48±4.69). There are statistically significant difference between the treatment group and the control group. Compared to the ratio of improvement, stability, and deterioration in the control group(10.3%, 48.7%, 41.0%), the indexes were changed obviously in the treatment group(64.1%, 28.2%, 7.7%,<i>P</i><0.05)with statistically significant difference between the two groups.<p>CONCLUSION:Calcium dobesilate can improve mean retinal sensitivity and protect the optic nerve in glaucoma patients whose intraocular pressure has been controlled

A γ\gamma-ray Quasi-Periodic modulation in the Blazar PKS 0301−-243?

We report a nominally high-confidence $\gamma$-ray quasi-periodic modulation in the blazar PKS 0301$-$243. For this target, we analyze its \emph{Fermi}-LAT Pass 8 data covering from 2008 August to 2017 May. Two techniques, i.e., the maximum likelihood optimization and the exposure-weighted aperture photometry, are used to build the $\gamma$-ray light curves. Then both the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram and the Weighted Wavelet Z-transform are applied to the light curves to search for period signals. A quasi-periodicity with a period of $2.1\pm0.3$ yr appears at the significance level of $\sim5\sigma$, although it should be noted that this putative quasi-period variability is seen in a data set barely four times longer. We speculate that this $\gamma$-ray quasi-periodic modulation might be evidence of a binary supermassive black hole.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap

Experimental realization of three-color entanglement at optical fiber communication and atomic storage wavelengths

Multi-color entangled states of light including low-loss optical fiber transmission and atomic resonance frequencies are essential resources for future quantum information network. We present the experimental achievement on the three-color entanglement generation at 852 nm, 1550 nm and 1440 nm wavelengths for optical continuous variables. The entanglement generation system consists of two cascaded non-degenerated optical parametric oscillators (NOPOs). The flexible selectivity of nonlinear crystals in the two NOPOs and the tunable property of NOPO provide large freedom for the frequency selection of three entangled optical beams, so the present system is possible to be developed as practical devices used for quantum information networks with atomic storage units and long fiber transmission lines.Comment: 4pages, 4 figure

Coding Properties of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells with Dual-Peak Patterns with Respect to Stimulus Intervals

How visual information is encoded in spikes of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is essential in visual neuroscience. In the present study, we investigated the coding properties of mouse RGCs with dual-peak patterns with respect to visual stimulus intervals. We first analyzed the response properties, and observed that the latencies and spike counts of the two response peaks in the dual-peak pattern exhibited systematic changes with the preceding light-OFF interval. We then applied linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to assess the relative contributions of response characteristics of both peaks in information coding regarding the preceding stimulus interval. It was found that for each peak, the discrimination results were far better than chance level based on either latency or spike count, and were further improved by using the combination of the two parameters. Furthermore, the best discrimination results were obtained when latencies and spike counts of both peaks were considered in combination. In addition, the correct rate for stimulation discrimination was higher when RGC population activity was considered as compare to single neuron’s activity, and the correct rate was increased with the group size. These results suggest that rate coding, temporal coding, and population coding are all involved in encoding the different stimulus-interval patterns, and the two response peaks in the dual-peak pattern carry complementary information about stimulus interval

Intrinsic Resting-State Activity in Older Adults With Video Game Experience

Playing video games is a prevalent leisure activity in current daily life, and studies have found that video game experience has positive effects in several cognitive domains. However, few studies have examined the effect of video game experience on the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) among older adults. In the current study, we compared behavioral performance in the flanker task and ALFF activities of older adults, of whom 15 were video game players (VGPs) and 18 non-video game players (NVGPs). The results showed that VGPs outperformed NVGPs in the flanker task and that VGPs showed significantly increased ALFF relative to NVGPs in the left inferior occipital gyrus, left cerebellum and left lingual gyrus. Furthermore, the ALFF in the left inferior occipital gyrus and left lingual gyrus was positively correlated with cognitive performance as measured by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. These results revealed that playing video games might improve behavioral performance and change intrinsic brain activity in older adults. Future video game training studies in older adults are warranted to provide more evidence of the positive effects of video game experience on behavioral and brain function

Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Object Tracker

Multi-object tracking has been a key research subject in many computer vision applications. We propose a novel approach based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) for multi-object tracking to solve the problems in the existing tracking methods, such as a varying number of targets, non-causal, and non-realtime. At first, we choose YOLO V3 to detect the objects included in each frame. Unsuitable candidates were screened out and the rest of detection results are regarded as multiple agents and forming a multi-agent system. Independent Q-Learners (IQL) is used to learn the agents' policy, in which, each agent treats other agents as part of the environment. Then, we conducted offline learning in the training and online learning during the tracking. Our experiments demonstrate that the use of MADRL achieves better performance than the other state-of-art methods in precision, accuracy, and robustness

Bacterial etiology in early re-admission patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Repeatedly hospitalized patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are often exposed to more antibiotics, but the distribution of pathogenic bacteria in these patients is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to analyze the distribution of pathogenic bacteria and the risk factors associated with multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria infection in early re-admission patients with AECOPD.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed charts for patients with AECOPD admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and november 2012. The early re-admission group and non-early readmission group were determined by whether patients were readmitted within 31 days after discharge. Detection of potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPMs) and MDR bacteria were analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors for MDR bacteria infection.Results: PPMs were isolated from 230 (32.0%) cases of respiratory tract specimens; MDR bacteria accounted for 24.7% (57/230). Pseudomonas aeruginosa (43.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (15.6%), and Acinetobacter baumannii (12.5%) were the top three PPMs in the early readmission group, while the top three PPMs in the non-early readmission group were K. pneumoniae (23.7%), P. aeruginosa (21.2%), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (17.1%). Multivariate analysis showed that use of antibiotics within 2 weeks (odds ratio [OR] 8.259, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.056-22.322, p = 0.000) was the independent risk factor for MDR bacteria infection.Conclusion: Non-fermentative Gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) and enterobacteria were the predominant bacteria in early readmission patients with AECOPD. The detection rate of MDR bacteria was high which was related to the use of antibiotics within 2 weeks before admission in these patients.Keywords: AECOPD, re-admission, bacteria, multidrug-resistant (MDR), risk factors