2,000 research outputs found
The pursuit of information sharing: Expressing task conflicts as debates vs. disagreements increases perceived receptivity to dissenting opinions in groups
Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier
Sequential change in olfaction and (non) motor symptoms: the difference between anosmia and non-anosmia in Parkinson’s disease
IntroductionHyposmia is a common prodrome in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study investigates whether olfactory changes in PD differ according to the degree of olfactory dysfunction and whether there are changes in motor and non-motor symptoms.MethodsThe 129 subjects with PD were divided into two groups: anosmia and non-anosmia. All cases were reassessed within 1–3 years after the initial assessment. The assessment included the MDS-Unified PD Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), Beck’s Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and equivalence dose of daily levodopa (LEDD). The generalized estimating equation (GEE) model with an exchangeable correlation structure was used to analyze the change in baseline and follow-up tracking and the disparity in change between these two groups.ResultsThe anosmia group was older and had a longer disease duration than the non-anosmia group. There was a significant decrease in UPSIT after follow-up in the non-anosmia group (β = −3.62, p < 0.001) and a significant difference in the change between the two groups (group-by-time effect, β = 4.03, p < 0.001). In the third part of the UPDRS motor scores, there was a tendency to increase the score in the non-anosmia group compared to the anosmia group (group-by-time effect, β = −4.2, p < 0.038). There was no significant difference in the group-by-time effect for UPDRS total score, LEDD, BDI-II, and MoCA scores.DiscussionIn conclusion, this study found that olfactory sensation may still regress in PD with a shorter disease course without anosmia, but it remains stable in the anosmia group. Such a decline in olfaction may not be related to cognitive status but may be associated with motor progression
Spontaneous Arrangement of Two-way Flow in Water Bridge
By revisiting the century-old problem of water bridge, we demonstrate that it
is in fact dynamic and comprises of two coaxial currents that carry different
charges and flow in opposite directions. Initially, the inner flow is
facilitated by the cone jet that is powered by H+ and flows out of the anode
beaker. The negative cone jet from cathode is established later and forced to
take the outer route. This spontaneous arrangement of two-way flow is revealed
by the use of chemical dyes, e.g., fluorescein and FeCl3, carbon powder, and
the Particle Image Velocimetry. These two opposing flows are found to carry
non-equal flux that results in a net transport of water to the cathode beaker.
By combining the above information and taking into account the counter flow to
equate the water level from the connecting pipe, we can estimate the cross
section and flow speed of these co-axial flows as a function of time and
applied voltage.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Deep Learning of Phase Transitions for Quantum Spin Chains from Correlation Aspects
Using machine learning (ML) to recognize different phases of matter and to
infer the entire phase diagram has proven to be an effective tool given a large
dataset. In our previous proposals, we have successfully explored phase
transitions for topological phases of matter at low dimensions either in a
supervised or an unsupervised learning protocol with the assistance of quantum
information related quantities. In this work, we adopt our previous ML
procedures to study quantum phase transitions of magnetism systems such as the
XY and XXZ spin chains by using spin-spin correlation functions as the input
data. We find that our proposed approach not only maps out the phase diagrams
with accurate phase boundaries, but also indicates some new features that have
not observed before. In particular, we define so-called relevant correlation
functions to some corresponding phases that can always distinguish between
those and their neighbors. Based on the unsupervised learning protocol we
proposed [Phys. Rev. B 104, 165108 (2021)], the reduced latent representations
of the inputs combined with the clustering algorithm show the connectedness or
disconnectedness between neighboring clusters (phases), just corresponding to
the continuous or disrupt quantum phase transition, respectively.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figure
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