Modulation of electroencephalograph activity by manual acupuncture stimulation in healthy subjects:An autoregressive spectral analysis

To investigate whether and how manual acupuncture(MA) modulates brain activities,we design an experiment where acupuncture at acupoint ST36 of the right leg is used to obtain electroencephalograph(EEG) signals in healthy subjects.We adopt the autoregressive(AR) Burg method to estimate the power spectrum of EEG signals and analyze the relative powers in delta(0 Hz-4 Hz),theta(4 Hz-8 Hz),alpha(8 Hz-13 Hz),and beta(13 Hz-30 Hz) bands.Our results show that MA at ST36 can significantly increase the EEG slow wave relative power(delta band) and reduce the fast wave relative powers(alpha and beta bands),while there are no statistical differences in theta band relative power between different acupuncture states.In order to quantify the ratio of slow to fast wave EEG activity,we compute the power ratio index.It is found that the MA can significantly increase the power ratio index,especially in frontal and central lobes.All the results highlight the modulation of brain activities with MA and may provide potential help for the clinical use of acupuncture.The proposed quantitative method of acupuncture signals may be further used to make MA more standardized.     

Linewidth of electromagnetically induced transparency under motional averaging in a coated vapor cell

The linewidth of electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT) in a coated Rb vapor cell was studied under a magnetic field gradient.The nonlinear broadening of the EIT linewidth with the magnetic field gradient was observed.It was found that the motional averaging of the field gradient was more pronounced at higher laser intensities and larger beam sizes.In the same regime,there was a small linewidth decrease with the increasing magnetic field gradient.We have established a Monte-Carlo model,which gave results in good qualitative agreement with our experiment.Physics pictures for the above phenomena were also suggested.These results provide an understanding of the EIT linewidth behavior under motional averaging,and should be useful for applications in quantum optics and metrology based on coated vapor cells.     

Relativistic symmetries in the Rosen-Morse potential and tensor interaction using the Nikiforov-Uvarov method

Approximate analytical bound-state solutions of the Dirac particle in the fields of attractive and repulsive Rosen- Morse (RM) potentials including the Coulomb-like tensor (CLT) potential are obtained for arbitrary spin-orbit quantum number κ. The Pekeris approximation is used to deal with the spin-orbit coupling terms κ(κ± 1)r 2 . In the presence of exact spin and pseudospin (p-spin) symmetries, the energy eigenvalues and the corresponding normalized two-component wave functions are found by using the parametric generalization of the Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) method. The numerical results show that the CLT interaction removes degeneracies between the spin and p-spin state doublets.     

A memristor oscillator based on a twin-T network

A novel inductance-free nonlinear oscillator circuit with a single bifurcation parameter is presented in this paper. This circuit is composed of a twin-T oscillator, a passive RC network, and a flux-controlled memristor. With an increase in the control parameter, the circuit exhibits complicated chaotic behaviors from double periodicity. The dynamic properties of the circuit are demonstrated by means of equilibrium stability, Lyapunov exponent spectra, and bifurcation diagrams. In order to confirm the occurrence of chaotic behavior in the circuit, an analog realization of the piecewise-linear flux-controlled memristor is proposed, and Pspice simulation is conducted on the resulting circuit.     

Rhythm dynamics of complex neuronal networks with mixed bursting neurons

The spatiotemporal order and rhythm dynamics of a complex neuronal network with mixed bursting neurons are studied in this paper. A quantitative characteristic, the width factor, is introduced to describe the rhythm dynamics of an individual neuron, and the average width factor is used to characterize the rhythm dynamics of a neuronal network. An r parameter is introduced to denote the ratio of the short bursting neurons in the network. Then we investigate the effect of the ratio on the rhythm dynamics of the neuronal network. The critical value of r is derived, and the neurons in the network always remain short bursting when the r ratio is larger than the critical value.     

Determining the resistance of X-pinch plasma

The current and the voltage of an X-pinch were measured. The inductance of the X-pinch was assumed to be a constant and estimated by the calculation of the magnetic field based on the well-known Biot-Savart's Law. The voltage of the inductance was calculated with L · di/dt and subtracted from the measured voltage of the X-pinch. Then, the resistance of the X-pinch was determined and the following results were obtained. At the start of the current flow the resistance of the exploding wires is several tens of Ohms, one order of magnitude, higher than the metallic resistance of the wires at room temperature, and then it falls quickly to about 1 , which reflects the physical processes occurring in the electrically exploding wires, i.e., a current transition from the highly resistive wire core to the highly conductive plasma. It was shown that the inductive contribution to the voltage of the X-pinch is less than the resistive contribution. For the wires we used, the wires' material and diameter have no strong influence on the resistance of the X-pinch, which may be explained by the fact that the current flows through the plasma rather than through the metallic wire itself. As a result, the current is almost equally divided between two parallel X-pinches even though the diameter and material of the wires used for these two X-pinches are significantly different.     

Efficient and rapid accuracy estimation of the Earth’s gravitational field from next-generation GOCE Follow-On by the analytical method

Firstly, a new analytical error model of the cumulative geoid height using the three-dimensional diagonal tensors of satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) is introduced based on the variance-covariance matrix principle. Secondly, a study for the requirements demonstration on the next-generation GOCE Follow-On satellite gravity gradiometry system is developed using different satellite orbital altitudes and measurement accuracies of satellite gravity gradiometer by the new analytical error model of SGG. The research results show that it is preferable to design satellite orbital altitudes of 300 km-400km and choose the measurement accuracies of 10-13/s2 -10-15/s2 from satellite gravity gradiometer. Finally, the complementarity of the four-stage satellite gravity missions, including past CHAMP, current GRACE, and GOCE, and next-generation GOCE Follow-On, is contrastively demonstrated for precisely recovering the Earth’s full-frequency gravitational field with high spatial resolution.     

Enhancement of the emission yield of silicon nanocrystals in silica due to surface passivation

The ability of surface passivation to enhance the photoluminescence (PL) emission of Si nanocrystals in SiO₂ has been investigated. Silicon precipitation in implanted samples takes place in a time scale of few minutes at 1100°C. For longer annealing at the same temperature, the PL intensity of the Si nanocrystals increases and eventually reaches saturation, while it correlates inversely with the amount of Si dangling bonds at the Si–SiO₂ interface (P_b centers), as measured by electron spin resonance. This combined behavior is independent on the silica matrix properties, implantation profiles and annealing atmosphere and duration. The observation that the light emission enhancement is directly related to the annealing of P_b centers is confirmed by treatment in forming gas. This mild hydrogenation at much lower temperature (450°C) leads to a complete passivation of the P_b defects, increasing at the same time the PL yield and the lifetime.