Psychophysiological Assessment of Buddhist Taiwanese Chanting

The psychophysiological responses and subjective experience correlates of Buddhist chanting were recorded from a 54 year-old female Buddhist monk who performed chanting for approximately 30 to 60 minutes twice daily for 25 years. The measutes included respiration rate from upper thorax, blood volume pulse (BVP) from left middle finger with heart rate derived from BVP, finger temperature from right index finger, skin conductance (SC) from the left index finger and the ring finger and sutface electromyographic (sEMG) from right trapezius and left sternocleidomastoid muscles (SCM) and were recorded during normal chanting sequence which included reading sutra aloud with her eyes open (chanting "The Samanta-Mukha") and silent mental repetition of sutra with the eyes closed (chanting "The Heart Sutra" inside her mind). After chanting she reported feeling peaceful, more relaxation with a total focus of attention and "consciousness"-an experience that was similar to when she chanted in the temple with other monks. The most significant finding was that respiration rate changed from 7.2 br/min during pre-baseline, to 12.1 brlmin during reading sutra aloud, 5.7 brlmin during silent mental repetition of sutra and 7.5 brl/min during post-baseline. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was significantly higher during post-baseline than reading chanting and silent mental repetition of sutra. All physiological measures were significantly different for each condition. This study suggests that the subjective experience associated with chanting can not be attributed to increased RSA and slower breathing as it depends upon the style of chanting. The spiritual experience associated with chanting appears to be evoked through the focused attention on the sutra

SOHSite: incorporating evolutionary information and physicochemical properties to identify protein S-sulfenylation sites

Distribution of KEGG pathway annotations for S-sulfenylated proteins. (DOCX 15 kb

Observation of the chiral anomaly induced negative magneto-resistance in 3D Weyl semi-metal TaAs

Weyl semi-metal is the three dimensional analog of graphene. According to the quantum field theory, the appearance of Weyl points near the Fermi level will cause novel transport phenomena related to chiral anomaly. In the present paper, we report the first experimental evidence for the long-anticipated negative magneto-resistance generated by the chiral anomaly in a newly predicted time-reversal invariant Weyl semi-metal material TaAs. Clear Shubnikov de Haas oscillations (SdH) have been detected starting from very weak magnetic field. Analysis of the SdH peaks gives the Berry phase accumulated along the cyclotron orbits to be {\pi}, indicating the existence of Weyl points.Comment: Submitted in February'1

Using Historical Return Data in the Black-Litterman Model for Optimal Portfolio Decision

In this paper, the Black-Litterman model which is the improved mean-variance optimization model, is discussed. Basically, the views given by the investors were incorporated into this model so that their views on risk and return, and risk tolerance could be quantified. For doing so, the market rates of return for the assets were calculated from the geometric mean. Moreover, the views of the investors were expressed in the matrix form. Then, the covariance matrix and the diagonal covariance matrix of the assets return were calculated. Accordingly, the mean rate of the asset return was computed. On this basis, the Black-Litterman optimization model was constructed. This model formulation was done by taking a set of possible rates of return for the assets. Particularly, the corresponding optimal portfolios of the assets with lower risk and higher expected return were further determined. For illustration, the historical return data for S&P 500, 3-month Treasury bill, and 10-year Treasury bond from 1928 to 2016 were employed to demonstrate the formulation of the ideal investment portfolio model. As a result, the efficient frontier of the portfolio is shown and the discussion is made. In conclusion, the Black-Litterman model could provide the optimal investment decision practically