Coexistence of Localized and Extended States in Disordered Systems

It is commonly believed that Anderson localized states and extended states do not coexist at the same energy. Here we propose a simple mechanism to achieve the coexistence of localized and extended states in a band in a class of disordered quasi-1D and quasi-2D systems. The systems are partially disordered in a way that a band of extended states always exists, not affected by the randomness, whereas the states in all other bands become localized. The extended states can overlap with the localized states both in energy and in space, achieving the aforementioned coexistence. We demonstrate such coexistence in disordered multi-chain and multi-layer systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Using cloud computing and mobile devices to facilitate students' learning through e-learning games

The recent advance in cloud computing and mobile devices empowers many innovative e-learning systems or games with increased interactivity and improved features. In this paper, we consider an innovative framework of cloud-based e-learning games that can be assessed through mobile devices to enhance students' learning anytime and anywhere. Being model-based, our proposal is adaptive and highly portable that can be easily customized to any existing cloud platform. Besides, our proposed framework allows course instructors or game designers to flexibly modify any part of an e-learning game, and continuously monitor the performance of individuals who try to compete with each other to attain better results. It is worth noting that this paper reports an on-going work, namely the iGame@Cloud system, for which a thorough evaluation will be conducted later. After all, our proposal stimulates many interesting directions for further exploration. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Embodied Persuasion: How Holding Your Smartphone Changes Your Product Perception

Online shopping through mobile devices has dramatically increased worldwide. This research investigates the role embodied interactions may play in stimulating virtual product experience in mobile commerce settings. Drawing on research on virtual product experience and embodied cognition, we hypothesize that holding a mobile device in hands (vs. putting the mobile device on the table) is more likely to create an illusion that the products being viewed are actually present in the real world and to stimulate imagery consumption experience, leading to higher purchase intention and choice satisfaction. This effect is more salient for desirable products than for undesirable products. We describe an experiment design for testing the hypotheses, report preliminary data analysis results, and discuss the potential theoretical and practical implications of this study

Information environment and participation of foreign banks in U.S. syndicated loan market

This study examines how financial information quality affects the participation and lending behavior of foreign banks in the loan syndicate of U.S borrowers. We utilize the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the U.S. as our research setting. We demonstrate a significant increase in foreign banks loan shares to public firms in the post-SOX period. In parallel, we find that this increase in lending by foreign banks is accompanied by more favorable price and non-price contract terms. By contrast, we find no evidence of either more loans or more favorable loan contract terms offered to U.S. privately held borrowers by foreign banks. Further analysis shows that the impact of such an exogenous change on loan contract terms are more pronounced among public listed borrowers with higher ex ante information asymmetry. Overall, our findings imply that the increase in quality and reliability of corporate financial information brought about by SOX reduces the information disadvantage of foreign lenders

The failure of stellar feedback, magnetic fields, conduction, and morphological quenching in maintaining red galaxies

The quenching "maintenance'" and related "cooling flow" problems are important in galaxies from Milky Way mass through clusters. We investigate this in halos with masses $\sim 10^{12}-10^{14}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$, using non-cosmological high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations with the FIRE-2 (Feedback In Realistic Environments) stellar feedback model. We specifically focus on physics present without AGN, and show that various proposed "non-AGN" solution mechanisms in the literature, including Type Ia supernovae, shocked AGB winds, other forms of stellar feedback (e.g. cosmic rays), magnetic fields, Spitzer-Braginskii conduction, or "morphological quenching" do not halt or substantially reduce cooling flows nor maintain "quenched" galaxies in this mass range. We show that stellar feedback (including cosmic rays from SNe) alters the balance of cold/warm gas and the rate at which the cooled gas within the galaxy turns into stars, but not the net baryonic inflow. If anything, outflowing metals and dense gas promote additional cooling. Conduction is important only in the most massive halos, as expected, but even at $\sim 10^{14}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ reduces inflow only by a factor $\sim 2$ (owing to saturation effects and anisotropic suppression). Changing the morphology of the galaxies only slightly alters their Toomre-$Q$ parameter, and has no effect on cooling (as expected), so has essentially no effect on cooling flows or maintaining quenching. This all supports the idea that additional physics, e.g., AGN feedback, must be important in massive galaxies.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

GPER-induced signaling is essential for the survival of breast cancer stem cells.

G protein-coupled estrogen receptor-1 (GPER), a member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily, mediates estrogen-induced proliferation of normal and malignant breast epithelial cells. However, its role in breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) remains unclear. Here we showed greater expression of GPER in BCSCs than non-BCSCs of three patient-derived xenografts of ER- /PR+ breast cancers. GPER silencing reduced stemness features of BCSCs as reflected by reduced mammosphere forming capacity in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo with decreased BCSC populations. Comparative phosphoproteomics revealed greater GPER-mediated PKA/BAD signaling in BCSCs. Activation of GPER by its ligands, including tamoxifen (TMX), induced phosphorylation of PKA and BAD-Ser118 to sustain BCSC characteristics. Transfection with a dominant-negative mutant BAD (Ser118Ala) led to reduced cell survival. Taken together, GPER and its downstream signaling play a key role in maintaining the stemness of BCSCs, suggesting that GPER is a potential therapeutic target for eradicating BCSCs

Neurobiological Changes of Schizotypy: Evidence From Both Volume-Based Morphometric Analysis and Resting-State Functional Connectivity

The current study sought to examine the underlying brain changes in individuals with high schizotypy by integrating networks derived from brain structural and functional imaging. Individuals with high schizotypy (n = 35) and low schizotypy (n = 34) controls were screened using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and underwent brain structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging on a 3T scanner. Voxel-based morphometric analysis and graph theory-based functional network analysis were conducted. Individuals with high schizotypy showed reduced gray matter (GM) density in the insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus. The graph theoretical analysis showed that individuals with high schizotypy showed similar global properties in their functional networks as low schizotypy individuals. Several hubs of the functional network were identified in both groups, including the insula, the lingual gyrus, the postcentral gyrus, and the rolandic operculum. More hubs in the frontal lobe and fewer hubs in the occipital lobe were identified in individuals with high schizotypy. By comparing the functional connectivity between clusters with abnormal GM density and the whole brain, individuals with high schizotypy showed weaker functional connectivity between the left insula and the putamen, but stronger connectivity between the cerebellum and the medial frontal gyrus. Taken together, our findings suggest that individuals with high schizotypy present changes in terms of GM and resting-state functional connectivity, especially in the frontal lobe

A Study of Trait Anhedonia in Non-Clinical Chinese Samples: Evidence from the Chapman Scales for Physical and Social Anhedonia

Background: Recent studies suggest that anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure, can be measured as an enduring trait in non-clinical samples. In order to examine trait anhedonia in a non-clinical sample, we examined the properties of a range of widely used questionnaires capturing anhedonia. Methods: 887 young adults were recruited from colleges. All of them were administered a set of checklists, including Chapman Scale for Social Anhedonia (CRSAS) and the Chapman Scale for Physical Anhedonia Scale (CPAS), The Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale(TEPS), and The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Results: Males showed significantly higher level of physical (F = 5.09, p<0.001) and social (F = 4.38, p<0.005) anhedonia than females. As expected, individuals with schizotypal personality features also demonstrated significantly higher scores of physical (t = 3.81, p<0.001) and social (t = 7.33, p<0.001) trait anhedonia than individuals without SPD features, but no difference on self-report anticipatory and consummatory pleasure experience. Conclusions: Concerning the comparison on each item of physical and social anhedonia, the results indicated that individuals with SPD feature exhibited higher than individuals without SPD features on more items of social anhedonia than physical anhedonia scale. These preliminary findings suggested that trait anhedonia can be identified a non-clinical sample. Exploring the demographic and clinical correlates of trait anhedonia in the general population may provide clues to the pathogenesis of psychotic disorder.China. Ministry of Science and Technology. National Key Technologies R&D Program (2012BAI36B01)National Science Fund China (Grant no. 81088001)National Science Fund China (Grant no. 91132701)Chinese Academy of Sciences. Knowledge Innovation Project (KSCX2-EW-J-8