INTERVENTION EFFECT OF SENSORY INTEGRATION TRAINING ON THE BEHAVIORS AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Background: Autism is a widespread developmental disorder that occurs mostly among children. Children with autism are prone to problematic behaviors due to their deficiencies in language communication and social development. Thus, children with a high degree of autism suffer lower life satisfaction. Moreover, sensory integration dysfunction is closely related to autism. Therefore, the effect of Sensory Integration Training (SIT) on the behaviors and quality of life of children with autism was explored in this study. Subjects and methods: From September 2017 to December 2018, 108 patients from Fuzhou Fourth Hospital and Xiangtan Fifth Hospital were included in the intervention group (group A) and the control group (group B), with 54 members in each group. The 54 members in group B, with an average age of 5.18±2.94, received routine treatment. In addition to the same routine treatment, the members in group B also received sensory integration training and physical exercise intervention, which lasted for three months. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) were used before and after the intervention experiment to evaluate the curative effect. Results: After the treatment, statistically significant differences were observed in the CARS and ABC scores (P<0.05); the total effective rate was 86.11% in group A and 64.10% in group B. The difference in the CARS score was statistically significant (P<0.05), whereas the difference in the ABC score was also statistically significant (P<0.05). In general, the difference in CARS is statistically significant. Specifically, group A is better than group B, t=3.492, df=73, and bilateral P=0.001<0.01. Conclusions: SIT intervention had a certain effect on autism and is of great value for the future development of SIT courses or intervention programs for children with autism

Ion steric effect induces giant enhancement of thermoelectric conversion in electrolyte-filled nanochannels

Ionic Seebeck effect has received increasing attention because of its advantages such as high Seebeck coefficient and low cost. However, theoretical study on the ionic Seebeck coefficient is still in its infancy and mainly focuses on diluted simple electrolytes excluding the contributions of ion steric effects and short-range electrostatic correlation. Here, we show that the coupling of the steric effects due to finite ion sizes and ion thermodiffusion in electric double layers can significantly enhance the thermoelectric response in confined electrolytes via both theory and simulation. The Seebeck coefficient can reach 100% or even one order of magnitude enhancement as compared to previous theoretical models depending on the degree of the ion steric effects and the sum of ion Soret coefficients. In addition, we demonstrate that the short-range electrostatic correlation is beneficial to achieving the maximum Seebeck coefficient at weaker confinement or more concentrated electrolytes. These findings can provide a strategy for achieving high Seebeck coefficient and high electric conductivity simultaneously to improve the efficiency of the ionic thermoelectric conversion.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Closed-Loop Unsupervised Representation Disentanglement with β\beta-VAE Distillation and Diffusion Probabilistic Feedback

Representation disentanglement may help AI fundamentally understand the real world and thus benefit both discrimination and generation tasks. It currently has at least three unresolved core issues: (i) heavy reliance on label annotation and synthetic data -- causing poor generalization on natural scenarios; (ii) heuristic/hand-craft disentangling constraints make it hard to adaptively achieve an optimal training trade-off; (iii) lacking reasonable evaluation metric, especially for the real label-free data. To address these challenges, we propose a \textbf{C}losed-\textbf{L}oop unsupervised representation \textbf{Dis}entanglement approach dubbed \textbf{CL-Dis}. Specifically, we use diffusion-based autoencoder (Diff-AE) as a backbone while resorting to $\beta$-VAE as a co-pilot to extract semantically disentangled representations. The strong generation ability of diffusion model and the good disentanglement ability of VAE model are complementary. To strengthen disentangling, VAE-latent distillation and diffusion-wise feedback are interconnected in a closed-loop system for a further mutual promotion. Then, a self-supervised \textbf{Navigation} strategy is introduced to identify interpretable semantic directions in the disentangled latent space. Finally, a new metric based on content tracking is designed to evaluate the disentanglement effect. Experiments demonstrate the superiority of CL-Dis on applications like real image manipulation and visual analysis

Evidence for Majorana bound state in an iron-based superconductor

The search for Majorana bound state (MBS) has recently emerged as one of the most active research areas in condensed matter physics, fueled by the prospect of using its non-Abelian statistics for robust quantum computation. A highly sought-after platform for MBS is two-dimensional topological superconductors, where MBS is predicted to exist as a zero-energy mode in the core of a vortex. A clear observation of MBS, however, is often hindered by the presence of additional low-lying bound states inside the vortex core. By using scanning tunneling microscope on the newly discovered superconducting Dirac surface state of iron-based superconductor FeTe1-xSex (x = 0.45, superconducting transition temperature Tc = 14.5 K), we clearly observe a sharp and non-split zero-bias peak inside a vortex core. Systematic studies of its evolution under different magnetic fields, temperatures, and tunneling barriers strongly suggest that this is the case of tunneling to a nearly pure MBS, separated from non-topological bound states which is moved away from the zero energy due to the high ratio between the superconducting gap and the Fermi energy in this material. This observation offers a new, robust platform for realizing and manipulating MBSs at a relatively high temperature.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, supplementary information include

Frequency-dependent modulation of whistler-mode waves by density irregularities during the recovery phase of a geomagnetic storm

Density irregularities near the plasmapause are commonly observed and play an important role in whistler-mode wave excitation and propagation. In this study, we report a frequency-dependent modulation event of whistler-mode waves by background density irregularities during a geomagnetic storm. Higher-frequency whistler waves (near 0.5 fce, where fce is the equatorial electron cyclotron frequency) are trapped in the density trough regions due to the small refractive index near the parallel direction, while lower-frequency whistler waves (below 0.02 fce) are trapped in the density crest regions due to the refractive index maximum along the parallel direction. In addition to the modulation, we also find that, quantitatively, the wave amplitude of the higher- (lower-) frequency whistler-mode waves is anti-correlated (correlated) with the relative plasma density variation. Our study suggests the importance of density irregularity dynamics in controlling whistler-mode wave intensity, and thus radiation belt dynamics

Nearly quantized conductance plateau of vortex zero mode in an iron-based superconductor

Majorana zero-modes (MZMs) are spatially-localized zero-energy fractional quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics that hold a great promise for topological quantum computing. Due to its particle-antiparticle equivalence, an MZM exhibits robust resonant Andreev reflection and 2e2/h quantized conductance at low temperature. By utilizing variable-tunnel-coupled scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we study tunneling conductance of vortex bound states on FeTe0.55Se0.45 superconductors. We report observations of conductance plateaus as a function of tunnel coupling for zero-energy vortex bound states with values close to or even reaching the 2e2/h quantum conductance. In contrast, no such plateau behaviors were observed on either finite energy Caroli-de Genne-Matricon bound states or in the continuum of electronic states outside the superconducting gap. This unique behavior of the zero-mode conductance reaching a plateau strongly supports the existence of MZMs in this iron-based superconductor, which serves as a promising single-material platform for Majorana braiding at a relatively high temperature

STING activation disrupts tumor vasculature to overcome the EPR limitation and increase drug deposition

The low success rate of cancer nanomedicines has raised debate on the role of the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect on tumor deposition of nanotherapeutics. Here, we report a bifunctional nanoscale coordination polymer (NCP), oxaliplatin (OX)/2′,3′-cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate (GA), to overcome the EPR limitation through stimulator of interferon genes (STING) activation and enhance chemotherapeutic and STING agonist delivery for tumor eradication. OX/GA encapsulates GA and OX in the NCP to protect GA from enzymatic degradation and improve GA and OX pharmacokinetics. STING activation by OX/GA disrupts tumor vasculatures and increases intratumoral deposition of OX by 4.9-fold over monotherapy OX-NCP. OX/GA demonstrates exceptional antitumor effects with >95% tumor growth inhibition and high cure rates in subcutaneous, orthotopic, spontaneous, and metastatic tumor models. OX/GA induces immunogenic cell death of tumor cells and STING activation of innate immune cells to enhance antigen presentation. NCPs provide an excellent nanoplatform to overcome the EPR limitation for effective cancer therapy

Tunable vortex Majorana zero modes in LiFeAs superconductor

The recent realization of pristine Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in vortices of iron-based superconductors (FeSCs) provides a promising platform for long-sought-after fault-tolerant quantum computation. A large topological gap between the MZMs and the lowest excitations enabled detailed characterization of vortex MZMs in those materials. Despite those achievements, a practical implementation of topological quantum computation based on MZM braiding remains elusive in this new Majorana platform. Among the most pressing issues are the lack of controllable tuning methods for vortex MZMs and inhomogeneity of the FeSC Majorana compounds that destroys MZMs during the braiding process. Thus, the realization of tunable vortex MZMs in a truly homogeneous compound of stoichiometric composition and with a charge neutral cleavage surface is highly desirable. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the stoichiometric superconductor LiFeAs is a good candidate to overcome these two obstacles. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we discover that the MZMs, which are absent on the natural surface, can appear in vortices influenced by native impurities. Our detailed analysis and model calculations clarify the mechanism of emergence of MZMs in this material, paving a way towards MZMs tunable by controllable methods such as electrostatic gating. The tunability of MZMs in this homogeneous material offers an unprecedented platform to manipulate and braid MZMs, the essential ingredients for topological quantum computation.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. Suggestions and comments are welcom