Aromaticity of Roesky’s Ketone

The polythiazyl polymer (SN)x is an intrinsic electric polymeric conductor at room temperature and superconductor at temperatures close to absolute zero, having diverse applications in chemistry and chemical technology. In this work, electronic properties of the compounds with a (SN)2 unit enclosed in the ring stricture were examined. Namely, the aromaticity of Roesky’s ketone and its isomers was investigated by means of current density maps, multicentre delocalization indices (MCI) and nucleus-independent chemical shifts indices (NICS). The relative stability of the studied compounds was compared based on the calculated BLYP and CASSCF energies

LOW SNR TRESHOLD IN RAPID ESTIMATORS OF COMPLEX SINUSOIDALS

A task of estimation of complex sinusoid frequency is considered. A particular but practically important case of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is studied. The low SNR threshold, commonly overlooked in development of the rapid estimator of complex sinusoidals, is addressed. Signals of different length are considered and SNR is varied in wide limits. It is demonstrated that a simple interpolation with factor 2 lowers the SNR threshold by 1.5dB for the most complicated practical situations. Further interpolation does not bring any improvement. This allows proposing a compromise practical algorithm that provides accuracy close to the limit and is still very simple and fast

Rasprostranjenost, brojnost i sastav populacije obične sipe sepia officinalis, linnaeus, 1758, u Jadranskom moru

Sipa, Sepia officinalis, je glavonožac rasprostranjen u istočnom Atlantiku, od Shetlandskog otočja i južne Norveške do sjeverozapadne Afrike, te u Mediteranu. Obitava na svim dubinama do 200 m, ali najviše je zastupljena na dubinama do 100 m. Vrsta je velikog gospodarskog značaja, poglavito za zemlje u području njezine rasprostranjenosti. Izlovljava se većim brojem ribolovnih alata, u gospodarskom ribolovu najviše pridnenom povlačnom mrežom koćom. Ukupni svjetski ulov ove vrste u 2011. godini iznosio je 26 701 t, a u ukupnim ulovima najviše je zastupljen Tunis u Mediteranu. U radu su korišteni podaci istraživanja provedenih u Jadranu u sklopu programa EU MEDITS u razdoblju od 1996. do 2008. godine. Uzorkovanja su provedena na svim koćarskim područjima Jadrana (GSA 17 i GSA18) korištenjem eksperimentalne pridnene povlačne mreže GOC 73, posebno konstruirane za ovaj tip istraživanja. Srednje vrijednosti indeksa biomase i indeksa brojnosti sipe (N/km2 i kg/km2), koji su dobiveni korištenjem “swept area” metode, izračunati su po godinama, po dubinskim stratumima kao i za cijelo razdoblje istraživanja. Srednja vrijednost indeksa biomase i brojnosti ove vrste u Jadranu iznosila je 0,90 kg/km2 i 11,42 N/km2. Analiza raspodjele po dubinama pokazala je da vrsta preferira plitka područja te su srednje vrijednosti oba indeksa bile najviše u dubinskom stratumu 10 do 50 m. Ukupno je analizirano 1069 primjeraka sipe, od toga 500 mužjaka, 352 ženke i 217 jedinki kojima pol nije bilo moguće odrediti. Omjer mužjaka i ženki bio je 1,42, odnosno u uzorcima su dominirali mužjaci što je najvjerojatnije posljedica masovnog pomora ženki nakon razmnožavanja. Raspon dužina plašta lovljenih primjeraka kretao se od 30 do 215 mm, a njihova srednja dužina iznosila je 81,23 mm (st.dev.=33,04). Prosječne godišnje vrijednosti indeksa biomase i brojnosti pokazuju značajne međugodišnje oscilacije što je uobičajeno za kratkoživuće vrste, poput sipe, koje izrazito ovise o uvjetima okoliša. Međutim, kod sipe se uočava i slabi negativni trend indeksa biomase u razdoblju 1996.-2008. godina a takve promjene u populaciji mogu biti posljedica prevelikog ribolovnog napora kojemu je vrsta izložena, posebice uzme li se u obzir i sinergijski učinak većeg broja ribolovnih alata kojima se ova vrsta izlovljava. Stoga je neophodno provoditi monitoring uzimajući u obzir što veći broj relevantnih parametara kao i sve dionike u ribolovu ove vrste radi predlaganja i provođenja mjera kojima će se osigurati dugoročno održivo korištenje ovog važnog ribolovnog resursa u Jadranskom moru

MODELLING CONVECTIVE THIN-LAYER DRYING OF CARROT SLICES AND QUALITY PARAMETERS

The influence of thin layer convective dehydration parameters on drying kinetics parameters, chemical composition, and color parameters of carrot slices were investigated, and corresponding mathematical models were developed. In the carrot slices, convective dehydration process hot air temperature and the sample slice thickness were varied, while measured, calculated, and modeled responses were: time of dehydration, effective moisture diffusivity, the energy of activation, proteins and cellulose contents, lightness, redness, and yellowness. The obtained results showed that varied convective dehydration process parameters statistically significantly affected all investigated responses except activation energy. The most efficient drying model with the minimum thickness (3 mm) and the maximum drying temperature (70 °C) had the shortest drying time (231 minutes). This model had the minimum resistance to mass transfer (the minimum effective moisture diffusivity, 2.04. 10–08 – 7.12. 10–08 [m2s–1]), and the average maximum energy of activation (31.31 kJ/mol). As far as the carrot slices’ chemical composition and color parameters were concerned, the model with the maximum thickness (9 mm) and the minimum drying temperature (35 °C) was the optimal one. This model had the longest dehydration time (934 minutes), the maximum resistance to the mass transfer (8.87. 10–08 [m2s–1]), the minimum total protein content (5.26 %), and the darkest color (49.70). The highest protein content (7.91%) was found for the samples subjected to the highest drying temperatures and the lowest carrot slice thickness. In contrast, the process of convective dehydration had led to the lighter, reddish, and yellowish carrot slices. All developed mathematical models were statistically significan

Ocena ekološkog statusa reke Zapadne Morave

The paper presents the results of basic physico-chemical and microbiological analyzes of the water quality of the middle course of the West Morava River during the year 2016. The quality of river water of most of the profiles corresponded to moderate ecological status, or III class of surface waters. The worst quality is registered in the Stancici profile, located downstream from the influx of wastewater from the city collector Cacak and the mouth of the Cemernica river. Extremely large microbiological pollution in some periods of the year is characterized by water of this profile as unusable for watering and other purposes. The results obtained confirm the justification for the construction of the Wastewater Treatment System from the city collector Cacak.U radu su prikazani rezultati analiza osnovnih fizičko-hemijskih i mikrobioloških pokazatelja kvaliteta vode srednjeg toka reke Zapadne Morave obavljenih tokom 2016. godine. Kvalitet vode većine profila je odgovarao umerenom ekološkom statusu, odnosno III klasi površinskih voda. Najlošiji kvalitet je registrovan u profilu Stančići, lociranom nizvodno od upliva otpadnih voda gradskog kolektora Čačka i ušća reke Čemernice. Velika mikrobiološka zagađenja u nekim periodima godine karakterišu vodu ovog profila kao neupotrebljivu za zalivanje i druge namene

Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls. A global enrichment of CNV burden was observed in cases (OR=1.11, P=5.7×10−15), which persisted after excluding loci implicated in previous studies (OR=1.07, P=1.7 ×10−6). CNV burden was enriched for genes associated with synaptic function (OR = 1.68, P = 2.8 ×10−11) and neurobehavioral phenotypes in mouse (OR = 1.18, P= 7.3 ×10−5). Genome-wide significant evidence was obtained for eight loci, including 1q21.1, 2p16.3 (NRXN1), 3q29, 7q11.2, 15q13.3, distal 16p11.2, proximal 16p11.2 and 22q11.2. Suggestive support was found for eight additional candidate susceptibility and protective loci, which consisted predominantly of CNVs mediated by non-allelic homologous recombination

No Reliable Association between Runs of Homozygosity and Schizophrenia in a Well-Powered Replication Study

It is well known that inbreeding increases the risk of recessive monogenic diseases, but it is less certain whether it contributes to the etiology of complex diseases such as schizophrenia. One way to estimate the effects of inbreeding is to examine the association between disease diagnosis and genome-wide autozygosity estimated using runs of homozygosity (ROH) in genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism arrays. Using data for schizophrenia from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (n = 21,868), Keller et al. (2012) estimated that the odds of developing schizophrenia increased by approximately 17% for every additional percent of the genome that is autozygous (β = 16.1, CI(β) = [6.93, 25.7], Z = 3.44, p = 0.0006). Here we describe replication results from 22 independent schizophrenia case-control datasets from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (n = 39,830). Using the same ROH calling thresholds and procedures as Keller et al. (2012), we were unable to replicate the significant association between ROH burden and schizophrenia in the independent PGC phase II data, although the effect was in the predicted direction, and the combined (original + replication) dataset yielded an attenuated but significant relationship between Froh and schizophrenia (β = 4.86,CI(β) = [0.90,8.83],Z = 2.40,p = 0.02). Since Keller et al. (2012), several studies reported inconsistent association of ROH burden with complex traits, particularly in case-control data. These conflicting results might suggest that the effects of autozygosity are confounded by various factors, such as socioeconomic status, education, urbanicity, and religiosity, which may be associated with both real inbreeding and the outcome measures of interest

Age at first birth in women is genetically associated with increased risk of schizophrenia

Prof. Paunio on PGC:n jäsenPrevious studies have shown an increased risk for mental health problems in children born to both younger and older parents compared to children of average-aged parents. We previously used a novel design to reveal a latent mechanism of genetic association between schizophrenia and age at first birth in women (AFB). Here, we use independent data from the UK Biobank (N = 38,892) to replicate the finding of an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women, and to estimate the genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in women stratified into younger and older groups. We find evidence for an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women (P-value = 1.12E-05), and we show genetic heterogeneity between younger and older AFB groups (P-value = 3.45E-03). The genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in the younger AFB group is -0.16 (SE = 0.04) while that between schizophrenia and AFB in the older AFB group is 0.14 (SE = 0.08). Our results suggest that early, and perhaps also late, age at first birth in women is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia in the UK Biobank sample. These findings contribute new insights into factors contributing to the complex bio-social risk architecture underpinning the association between parental age and offspring mental health.Peer reviewe

Genetic correlation between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and schizophrenia

A. Palotie on työryhmän Schizophrenia Working Grp Psychiat jäsen.We have previously shown higher-than-expected rates of schizophrenia in relatives of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggesting an aetiological relationship between the diseases. Here, we investigate the genetic relationship between ALS and schizophrenia using genome-wide association study data from over 100,000 unique individuals. Using linkage disequilibrium score regression, we estimate the genetic correlation between ALS and schizophrenia to be 14.3% (7.05-21.6; P = 1 x 10(-4)) with schizophrenia polygenic risk scores explaining up to 0.12% of the variance in ALS (P = 8.4 x 10(-7)). A modest increase in comorbidity of ALS and schizophrenia is expected given these findings (odds ratio 1.08-1.26) but this would require very large studies to observe epidemiologically. We identify five potential novel ALS-associated loci using conditional false discovery rate analysis. It is likely that shared neurobiological mechanisms between these two disorders will engender novel hypotheses in future preclinical and clinical studies.Peer reviewe

Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has a heritability of 60-80%1, much of which is attributable to common risk alleles. Here, in a two-stage genome-wide association study of up to 76,755 individuals with schizophrenia and 243,649 control individuals, we report common variant associations at 287 distinct genomic loci. Associations were concentrated in genes that are expressed in excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the central nervous system, but not in other tissues or cell types. Using fine-mapping and functional genomic data, we identify 120 genes (106 protein-coding) that are likely to underpin associations at some of these loci, including 16 genes with credible causal non-synonymous or untranslated region variation. We also implicate fundamental processes related to neuronal function, including synaptic organization, differentiation and transmission. Fine-mapped candidates were enriched for genes associated with rare disruptive coding variants in people with schizophrenia, including the glutamate receptor subunit GRIN2A and transcription factor SP4, and were also enriched for genes implicated by such variants in neurodevelopmental disorders. We identify biological processes relevant to schizophrenia pathophysiology; show convergence of common and rare variant associations in schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders; and provide a resource of prioritized genes and variants to advance mechanistic studies