Coexistence of directed momentum current and ballistic energy diffusion in coupled non-Hermitian kicked rotors

We numerically investigate the quantum transport in a coupled kicked rotors with the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric potential. We find that the spontaneous $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking of wavefunctions emerges when the amplitude of the imaginary part of the complex potential is beyond a threshold value, which can be modulated by the coupling strength effectively. In the regime of the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking, the particles driven by the periodical kicks move unidirectionally in momentum space, indicating the emergence of a directed current. Meanwhile, with increasing the coupling strength, we find a transition from the ballistic energy diffusion to a kind of the modified ballistic energy diffusion where the width of the wavepacket also increases with time in a power law. Our findings suggest that the decoherence effect induced by the interplay between the inter-particle coupling and the non-Hermitian driving potential is responsible for these particular transport behaviors.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Retinal Fundus Image Registration via Vascular Structure Graph Matching

Motivated by the observation that a retinal fundus image may contain some unique geometric structures within its vascular trees which can be utilized for feature matching, in this paper, we proposed a graph-based registration framework called GM-ICP to align pairwise retinal images. First, the retinal vessels are automatically detected and represented as vascular structure graphs. A graph matching is then performed to find global correspondences between vascular bifurcations. Finally, a revised ICP algorithm incorporating with quadratic transformation model is used at fine level to register vessel shape models. In order to eliminate the incorrect matches from global correspondence set obtained via graph matching, we proposed a structure-based sample consensus (STRUCT-SAC) algorithm. The advantages of our approach are threefold: (1) global optimum solution can be achieved with graph matching; (2) our method is invariant to linear geometric transformations; and (3) heavy local feature descriptors are not required. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated by the experiments with 48 pairs retinal images collected from clinical patients

Role of Body Mass Index, Waist-to-Height and Waist-to-Hip Ratio in Prediction of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Objective. To investigate the anthropometric indicators that can effectively predict the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods. The height, body weight, waist and hip circumference were measured, and body mass index (BMI), waist-to-height (WHtR) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were calculated. M-H chi square test, logistic regression analysis, and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve were employed for the analysis of risk factors. Patients or Materials. 490 patients were recruited, of whom 250 were diagnosed as NAFLD and 240 as non-NAFLD (control group). Results. Compared with the control group, the BMI, WHR, and WHtR were significantly higher in patients with NAFLD. Logistic regression analysis showed that BMI and WHR were effective prognostic factors of NAFLD. In addition, WHR plays a more important role in prediction of NAFLD by the area under curve. Conclusion. WHR is closely related to the occurrence of NAFLD. We assume that WHR is beneficial for the diagnosis NAFLD

Preparation of novel biodegradable pHEMA hydrogel for a tissue engineering scaffold by microwave-assisted polymerization

AbstractObjectiveTo prepare a novel biodegradable poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrilate) (pHEMA) hydrogel as tissue engineering scaffold.MethodsThe pHEMA hydrogel was synthesized by microwave-assisted polymerization using 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as the raw material, potassium persulfate as the initiator, and PCLX as the cross-linking additive. The hydrogels was characterized with FTIR and NMR spectroscopy. The physical and chemical properties of the prepared hydrogel were evaluated, and its degradation performance was tested. The cytotoxicity of the optimum composite hydrogel was measured by an MTT assay to confirm the feasibility of its use in tissue engineering.ResultsThe optimum conditions under which the hydrogel was prepared by microwave-assisted polymerization are as follows: 1.5 g cross-linking additive, 0.3 g initiator, reaction temperature of 80 °C, and microwave power of 800 W. Degradation studies showed good degradation profiles with 75% in 17 days. Additionally, the hydrogels did not elicit any cytotoxic response in in vitro cytotoxic assays.ConclusionA biodegradable pHEMA hydrogel was successfully prepared by microwave-assisted polymerization, as confirmed from FTIR and NMR results. The hydrogel shows promising applications in tissue engineering, and its healing ability and biocompatibility will be evaluated in detail in the future