Dysfunction in Serotonergic and Noradrenergic Systems and Somatic Symptoms in Psychiatric Disorders

Somatic symptoms include a range of physical experiences, such as pain, muscle tension, body shaking, difficulty in breathing, heart palpitation, blushing, fatigue, and sweating. Somatic symptoms are common in major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorders, and some other psychiatric disorders. However, the etiology of somatic symptoms remains unclear. Somatic symptoms could be a response to emotional distress in patients with those psychiatric conditions. Increasing evidence supports the role of aberrant serotoninergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission in somatic symptoms. The physiological alterations underlying diminished serotonin (5-HT) and norepinephrine (NE) signaling may contribute to impaired signal transduction, reduced 5-HT, or NE release from terminals of presynaptic neurons, and result in alternations in function and/or number of receptors and changes in intracellular signal processing. Multiple resources of data support each of these mechanisms. Animal models have shown physiological responses, similar to somatic symptoms seen in psychiatric patients, after manipulations of 5-HT and NE neurotransmission. Human genetic studies have identified many single-nucleotide polymorphisms risk loci associated with somatic symptoms. Several neuroimaging findings support that somatic symptoms are possibly associated with a state of reduced receptor binding. This narrative literature review aimed to discuss the involvement of serotonergic and noradrenergic systems in the pathophysiology of somatic symptoms. Future research combining neuroimaging techniques and genetic analysis to further elucidate the biological mechanisms of somatic symptoms and to develop novel treatment strategies is needed

No-compressing of quantum phase information

We raise a general question of quantum information theory whether the quantum phase information can be compressed and retrieved. A general qubit contains both amplitude and phase information, while an equatorial qubit contains only a phase information. We study whether it is possible to compress the phase information of n equatorial qubits into m general qubits with m being less than n, and still those information can be retrieved perfectly. We prove that this process is not allowed by quantum mechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Mathematical and experimental evaluation of a mini-channel PV/T and thermal panel in summer mode

In this paper, a mini-channel PV/T and mini-channel thermal panel hot water system is presented. The thermal panels in this system use mini-channel tube as the heat exchanger, which has a small hydraulic diameter and large heat exchanger area, and this special structure can improve the heat transfer coefficient at the same flow rate than the conventional type. The performance of this system for generating hot water and electricity in summer has been tested, and a simulation model of this operating mode has been developed. Based on a typical day's weather data, the simulation model is verified, and the experimental and simulated results agree with each other very well. The results reveal that the experimental and simulated electrical efficiencies of PV/T panels are 11.5% and 12.6%, respectively. The experimental and simulated thermal efficiencies of thermal collectors are 46.8% and 48.0%, respectively. The experimental and simulated final water temperatures in the tank are 59.3 °C and 60.9 °C, respectively. Based on these results, an error analysis is carried out. The experimental and simulation results of the system in summer provide a fundamental data and method for predicting the annual performance of the system in the future

Unified Universal Quantum Cloning Machine and Fidelities

We present a unified universal quantum cloning machine, which combines several different existing universal cloning machines together including the asymmetric case. In this unified framework, the identical pure states are projected equally into each copy initially constituted by input and one half of the maximally entangled states. We show explicitly that the output states of those universal cloning machines are the same. One importance of this unified cloning machine is that the cloning procession is always the symmetric projection which reduces dramatically the difficulties for implementation. Also it is found that this unified cloning machine can be directly modified to the general asymmetric case. Besides the global fidelity and the single-copy fidelity, we also present all possible arbitrary-copy fidelities.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Experimental and analytic study of a hybrid solar/biomass rural heating system

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents a dedicated analytic and experimental study of a hybrid solar/biomass space heating system incorporating a micro-channel solar thermal panels-array, a biomass boiler and a dedicated control algorithm. This system enables the smart and joint use of solar and biomass energies to provide a comfortable indoor environment. The in-situ testing of the system was undertaken and the data obtained from the testing were analysed using Grubbs method to formulate the experimental thermal efficiency equation for the solar panels-array and the heat conversion factor equation for the combined heat storage/exchanging water tank. The annual energy performance of the hybrid system was investigated using a professional building energy simulation program (EnergyPlus), which can predict the heat load profile of house, the ratio of energy usage from solar/biomass sources and the primary energy/exergy efficiencies. The thermal efficiency of the solar thermal panels-array is in the range of 60%–70%. The heat storage water tank has a heat conversion factor in the range of 0.94–0.98. The heat load index per unit area is 46.86 W/m2 and cumulative heating energy consumption with 100 m2 house is 24.3 GJ during a heating season. The total annual energy demand of the solar/biomass heating system is around 35.91 GJ, of which the sun provides 63.31% and biomass provides 36.69%. The primary energy and exergy efficiencies of the solar/biomass rural heating system are 67.66% and 16.17% respectively. However, when the total input electrical exergy is traced back to its primary energy source, i.e. a coal-fired power plant, the exergy efficiency falls from 23.14% to 7.27%. Compared to the traditional primary energy supply system, the energy conversion effect and effective utilization degree of the solar/biomass heating system are relatively higher