Condensation of Eigen Microstate in Statistical Ensemble and Phase Transition

In a statistical ensemble with $M$ microstates, we introduce an $M \times M$ correlation matrix with the correlations between microstates as its elements. Using eigenvectors of the correlation matrix, we can define eigen microstates of the ensemble. The normalized eigenvalue by $M$ represents the weight factor in the ensemble of the corresponding eigen microstate. In the limit $M \to \infty$, weight factors go to zero in the ensemble without localization of microstate. The finite limit of weight factor when $M \to \infty$ indicates a condensation of the corresponding eigen microstate. This indicates a phase transition with new phase characterized by the condensed eigen microstate. We propose a finite-size scaling relation of weight factors near critical point, which can be used to identify the phase transition and its universality class of general complex systems. The condensation of eigen microstate and the finite-size scaling relation of weight factors have been confirmed by the Monte Carlo data of one-dimensional and two-dimensional Ising models.Comment: 9 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Sci. China-Phys. Mech. Astro

Surgical outcomes of endoscopic thyroidectomy approaches for thyroid cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

ObjectivesThis network meta-analysis assesses the outcomes of seven endoscopic approaches, offering valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in choosing the best method for thyroid cancer patients.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases up to March 2023. The analysis included seven endoscopic approaches, with a focus on their respective outcomes through network meta-analysis.ResultsThis meta-analysis included 44 studies involving 8,672 patients. The axillo-bilateral breast approach (ABBA) and unilateral axillo-breast approach (UABA) showed advantages in terms of reduced operative time compared to other approaches (MD = 19.66 minutes, 95% CI = -31.66 to 70.98; MD = 30.32 minutes, 95% CI = -1.45 to 62.09, respectively). The UABA and anterior chest approach (ACA) exhibited superiority in controlling intraoperative bleeding (MD = -3.37 mL, 95% CI = -22.58 to 15.85; MD = -13.77 mL, 95% CI = -28.85 1.31, respectively). UABA and ACA also showed advantages in reducing hospital stays (MD = -0.39 days, 95% CI = -1.48 to 0.71; MD = -0.26 days, 95% CI = -1.33 to 0.81, respectively). The transoral approach (OA) yielded results comparable to those of conventional open thyroidectomy (COT) and outperformed other endoscopic surgeries with regards to lymph node retrieval and metastatic lymph node assessment. For the stimulated serum thyroglobulin (TG) levels, no significant difference was observed between bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) and OA compared to COT. However, chest-breast approach (CBA) showed significantly lower levels than COT (MD=-0.40 ng/ml, 95% CI =-0.72 to -0.09). Patients in the gasless unilateral transaxillary approach (GUA) group experienced a significant improvement in cosmetic satisfaction (MD=-2.08, 95% CI =-3.35 to -0.82). Importantly, no significant difference was observed in the incidence of surgical complications between endoscopic thyroidectomy and COT.ConclusionEndoscopic thyroid surgery is a safe and effective choice for thyroid cancer patients. Different approaches have their advantages, allowing personalized selection based on the patient’s needs. ABBA and UABA have shorter operative times, while UABA and ACA excel at controlling bleeding and shortening hospital stays. OA shows promise for lymph node assessment. These findings contribute to the growing evidence supporting endoscopic methods, expanding treatment options for thyroid cancer patients

Genome-Wide Association Study for Plant Height and Grain Yield in Rice under Contrasting Moisture Regimes

Drought is one of the vitally critical environmental stresses affecting both growth and yield potential in rice. Drought resistance is a complicated quantitative trait that is regulated by numerous small effect loci and hundreds of genes controlling various morphological and physiological responses to drought. For this study, 270 rice landraces and cultivars were analyzed for their drought resistance. This was done via determination of changes in plant height and grain yield under contrasting water regimes, followed by detailed identification of the underlying genetic architecture via genome-wide association study (GWAS). We controlled population structure by setting top two eigenvectors and combining kinship matrix for GWAS in this study. Eighteen, five, and six associated loci were identified for plant height, grain yield per plant, and drought resistant coefficient, respectively. Nine known functional genes were identified, including five for plant height (OsGA2ox3, OsGH3-2, sd-1, OsGNA1 and OsSAP11/OsDOG), two for grain yield per plant (OsCYP51G3 and OsRRMh) and two for drought resistant coefficient (OsPYL2 and OsGA2ox9), implying very reliable results. A previous study reported OsGNA1 to regulate root development, but this study reports additional controlling of both plant height and root length. Moreover, OsRLK5 is a new drought resistant candidate gene discovered in this study. OsRLK5 mutants showed faster water loss rates in detached leaves. This gene plays an important role in the positive regulation of yield-related traits under drought conditions. We furthermore discovered several new loci contributing to the three investigated traits (plant height, grain yield, and drought resistance). These associated loci and genes significantly improve our knowledge of the genetic control of these traits in rice. In addition, many drought resistant cultivars screened in this study can be used as parental genotypes to improve drought resistance of rice by molecular breeding

Software‐Defined Optical Networking (SDON): Principles and Applications

Featured by the advantages of high capacity, long transmission distance, and low energy consumption, optical network has been deployed widely as the most important infrastructure for backbone transport network. With the development of Internet, datacenter has become the popular infrastructure for cloud computing, which needs to be connected with high bitrate transport network to support heterogeneous applications. In this case, optical network also becomes a promising option for intra and inter‐datacenter networking. In the networking field, software‐defined networking (SDN) has gained a lot of attention from both academic and industry, and it aims to provide a flexible and programmable control plane. SDN is applicable to optical network, and the optical network integrated with SDN, namely software‐defined optical network (SDON), are expected as the future transport solutions, which can provide both high bitrate connectivity and flexible network applications. The principles and applications of SDON are introduced in this chapter

AN INNOVATIVE GAS TURBINE CYCLE WITH METHANOL FUELLED CHEMICAL-LOOPING COMBUSTION

ABSTRACT In this paper, a novel gas turbine cycle integrating methanol decomposition and the chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is proposed. The system study on two methanol-fuelled power plants, the new gas turbine cycle with CLC combustion, and a chemically intercooled gas turbine cycle, has been investigated with the aid of the exergy analysis (EUD methodology). In the proposed system, methanol fuel is decomposed into syngas mainly containing H 2 and CO by recovering low-temperature thermal energy from an intercooler of the air compressor. After the decomposition of methanol, the resulting product of syngas is divided into two parts: the most part reacting with Fe 2 O 3 , is sent into the CLC subsystem, and the other part is introduced into a supplement combustor to enhance the inlet temperatures of turbine to 1100-1500 o C. As a result, the new methanol-fuelled gas turbine cycle with CLC had a breakthrough in performance, with at least about 10.7 percentage points higher efficiency compared to the chemically intercooled gas turbine cycle with recovery of CO 2 and is environmentally superior due to the recovery of CO 2 . This new system can achieve 60.6% net thermal efficiency with CO 2 separation. The promising results obtained here indicated that this novel gas turbine cycle with methanol-fuelled chemical looping combustion could provide a promising approach of both effective use of alternative fuel and recovering low-grade waste heat, and offer a technical probability for CLC in applying into the advanced gas turbine with high temperatures above 1300 o C. INTRODUCTION Currently, we face a potentially serious problem of rapid climate change due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO 2 ). One of the options to control the greenhouse gas emission is the CO 2 capture technologies from flue gases. In a fossil fuel-fired power plant, CO 2 capture can be carried out mainly through three available technologies: "precombustion," "post-combustion" and "oxy-fuel combustion." The progress in this field has been addressed by Mazen [2] Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) with inherent separation of CO 2 is considered a promising technology proposed by Ishida and Jin in 1994 [4][5] . It is the most attractive energy efficient method for CO 2 capture from fuel conversion in combustion process. Compared to conventional combustion, the chemical-looping combustion involves the use of a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier, which transfers oxygen from the combustion air to the fuel, and the direct contact between fuel and combustion air is avoided. In this way, CO 2 and H 2 O are inherently separated from the other components of flue gases leading to no energy needed for CO 2 separation. It is worthy emphasized that this novel CO 2 capture technology simultaneously resolve both energy and environmental problems in a combustion processes, since the conversion of fuel-based chemical energy into chemical energy in th

Controllable Entanglement Distribution Network Based on Silicon Quantum Photonics

The entanglement distribution network connects remote users through sharing entanglement resources, which is essential for realizing quantum internet. We proposed a controllable entanglement distribution network (c-EDN) based on a silicon quantum photonic chip. The entanglement resources were generated by a quantum light source array based on spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in silicon waveguides and distributed to different users through time-reversed Hong-Ou-Mandel interferences in on-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometers with thermal phase shifters. A chip sample was designed and fabricated, supporting a c-EDN with 3 subnets and 24 users. The network topology of entanglement distributions could be reconfigured in three network states by controlling the quantum interferences through the phase shifters, which was demonstrated experimentally. Furthermore, a reconfigurable entanglement-based QKD network was realized as an application of the c-EDN. The reconfigurable network topology makes the c-EDN suitable for future quantum networks requiring complicated network control and management. Moreover, it is also shows that silicon quantum photonic chips have great potential for large-scale c-EDN, thanks to their capacities on generating and manipulating plenty of entanglement resources