catena-Poly[[diaqua­nickel(II)]-bis­(μ-pyridine-4-sulfinato)-κ2 N,O;κ2 O,N]

In the title coordination polymer, [Ni(C5H4NO2S)2(H2O)2]n, the NiII ion is located on an inversion centre and is octa­hedrally coordinated by two N and two O atoms of four symmetry-related and deprotonated pyridine-4-sulfinate (ps) ligands together with two water mol­ecules in axial positions. The ps− anions, acting as μ2-bridging ligands, link neighbouring NiII ions into a chain structure along the c axis. These polymeric chains are extended into a three-dimensional framework via inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds with participation of the water mol­ecules

Sexual Dimorphism, Female Reproductive Characteristics and Egg Incubation in an Oviparous Forest Skink (Sphenomorphus incognitus) from South China

We studied sexual dimorphism and female reproduction in an oviparous forest skink (Sphenomorphus incognitus) from South China. We incubated eggs under five thermal regimes (22, 25, 28, 25 ± 3 and 27 ± 5 °C) to examine the effects of constant versus fluctuating temperatures on incubation length and hatchling morphology. In our sample the largest male and female were 110 mm and 108 mm snout-vent length (SVL), respectively. Adult males and females did not differ in mean SVL; adult males were larger in head size (both length and width), longer in fore- and hind-limb lengths and shorter in abdomen length than females of the same SVL. Accordingly, we conclude that S. incognitus is a sexually monomorphic species in terms of SVL but shows sexual dimorphism in head size, abdomen length and appendage length. Females laid a single clutch of 3−10 eggs per breeding season from early May to mid-August, with larger females generally laying more (but not always larger) eggs per clutch than did smaller ones. Embryonic stages at laying ranged from Dufaure and Hubert’s (1961) stage 31 to 32, with a mean stage of 31.3. The positive relationship between clutch mass and female SVL was not significant. The offspring size-number trade-off does not exist in S. incognitus, as revealed by the fact that egg mass was independent of relative fecundity. Incubation length decreased as temperature increased, and stable temperatures resulted in delayed hatching. Hatchlings incubated under the five thermal regimes did not differ from each other in any examined trait, suggesting that S. incognitus is among oviparous reptilian species where incubation temperature has no role in modifying hatchling morphology as long as eggs are not exposed to extreme temperatures for prolonged periods of time

A Method Based on Active Appearance Model and Gradient Orientation Pyramid of Face Verification as People Age

Face verification in the presence of age progression is an important problem that has not been widely addressed. In this paper, we propose to use the active appearance model (AAM) and gradient orientation pyramid (GOP) feature representation for this problem. First, we use the AAM on the dataset and generate the AAM images; we then get the representation of gradient orientation on a hierarchical model, which is the appearance of GOP. When combined with a support vector machine (SVM), experimental results show that our approach has excellent performance on two public domain face aging datasets: FGNET and MORPH. Second, we compare the performance of the proposed methods with a number of related face verification methods; the results show that the new approach is more robust and performs better

Establishing the heavy quark spin and light flavor molecular multiplets of the X(3872)X(3872), Zc(3900)Z_c(3900) and X(3960)X(3960)

Recently, the LHCb Collaboration reported a near-threshold enhancement, $X(3960)$, in the $D_s^+D_s^-$ invariant mass distribution. We show that the data can be well described by either a bound or a virtual state below the $D_s^+D_s^-$ threshold. The mass given by the pole position is $(3928\pm3)$ MeV. Using this mass and the existing information on the $X(3872)$ and $Z_c(3900)$ resonances, a complete spectrum of the $S$-wave hadronic molecules formed by a pair of ground state charmed and anticharmed mesons is established. Thus, pole positions of the partners of the $X(3872)$, $Z_c(3900)$ and the newly observed $D_s^+D_s^-$ state are predicted. Calculations have been carried out at the leading order of nonrelativistic effective field theory and considering both heavy quark spin and light flavor SU(3) symmetries, though conservative errors from the breaking of these symmetries are provided.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures and 5 tables. Version to appear in PR

A Novel Statistical Approach for Clustering Positive Data Based on Finite Inverted Beta-Liouville Mixture Models

Nowadays, a great number of positive data has been occurred naturally in many applications, however, it was not adequately analyzed. In this article, we propose a novel statistical approach for clustering multivariate positive data. Our approach is based on a finite mixture model of inverted Beta-Liouville (IBL) distributions, which is proper choice for modeling and analysis of positive vector data. We develop two different approaches to learn the proposed mixture model. Firstly, the maximum likelihood (ML) is utilized to estimate parameters of the finite inverted Beta-Liouville mixture model in which the right number of mixture components is determined according to the minimum message length (MML) criterion. Secondly, the variational Bayes (VB) is adopted to learn our model where the parameters and the number of mixture components can be determined simultaneously in a unified framework, without the requirement of using information criteria. We investigate the effectiveness of our model by conducting a series of experiments on both synthetic and real data sets

Effect of rs1344706 in the ZNF804A gene on the brain network.

ZNF804A rs1344706 (A/C) was the first SNP that reached genome-wide significance for schizophrenia. Recent studies have linked rs1344706 to functional connectivity among specific brain regions. However, no study thus far has examined the role of this SNP in the entire functional connectome. In this study, we used degree centrality to test the role of rs1344706 in the whole-brain voxel-wise functional connectome during the resting state. 52 schizophrenia patients and 128 healthy controls were included in the final analysis. In our whole-brain analysis, we found a significant interaction effect of genotype × diagnosis at the precuneus (PCU) (cluster size = 52 voxels, peak voxel MNI coordinates: x = 9, y = - 69, z = 63, F = 32.57, FWE corrected P < 0.001). When we subdivided the degree centrality network according to anatomical distance, the whole-brain analysis also found a significant interaction effect of genotype × diagnosis at the PCU with the same peak in the short-range degree centrality network (cluster size = 72 voxels, F = 37.29, FWE corrected P < 0.001). No significant result was found in the long-range degree centrality network. Our results elucidated the contribution of rs1344706 to functional connectivity within the brain network, and may have important implications for our understanding of this risk gene's role in functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia

Understanding the 0++0^{++} and 2++2^{++} charmonium(-like) states near 3.9 GeV

We propose that the $X(3915)$ observed in the $J/\psi\,\omega$ channel is the same state as the $\chi_{c2}(3930)$, and the $X(3960)$, observed in the $D_s^+D_s^-$ channel, is an $S$-wave $D_s^+ D_s^-$ hadronic molecule. In addition, the $J^{PC}=0^{++}$ {component in the $B^+\to D^+D^-K^+$} assigned to the $X(3915)$ in the current {\it Review of Particle Physics} has the same origin as the $X(3960)$, which has a mass around 3.94~GeV. To check the proposal, the available data in the $D\bar D$ and $D_s^+ D_s^-$ channels from both $B$ decays and $\gamma\gamma$ fusion reaction are analyzed considering both the $D\bar D$-$D_s\bar D_s$-$D^*\bar D^*$-$D_s^*\bar D_s^*$ coupled channels with $0^{++}$ and a $2^{++}$ state introduced additionally. It is found that all the data in different processes can be simultaneously well reproduced, and the coupled-channel dynamics produce four hidden-charm scalar molecular states with masses around 3.73, 3.94, 3.99 and 4.23~GeV, respectively. The results may deepen our understanding of the spectrum of charmonia as well as of the interactions between charmed hadrons.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, to apear in Sci. Bul

Evidence for the contribution of COMT gene Val158/108Met polymorphism (rs4680) to working memory training-related prefrontal plasticity.

BackgroundGenetic factors have been suggested to affect the efficacy of working memory training. However, few studies have attempted to identify the relevant genes.MethodsIn this study, we first performed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to identify brain regions that were specifically affected by working memory training. Sixty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the adaptive training group (N = 30) or the active control group (N = 30). Both groups were trained for 20 sessions during 4 weeks and received fMRI scans before and after the training. Afterward, we combined the data from the 30 participants in the RCT study who received adaptive training with data from 71 additional participants who also received the same adaptive training but were not part of the RCT study (total N = 101) to test the contribution of the COMT Val158/108Met polymorphism to the interindividual difference in the training effect within the identified brain regions.ResultsIn the RCT study, we found that the adaptive training significantly decreased brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex (TFCE-FWE corrected p = .030). In the genetic study, we found that compared with the Val allele homozygotes, the Met allele carriers' brain activation decreased more after the training at the left prefrontal cortex (TFCE-FWE corrected p = .025).ConclusionsThis study provided evidence for the neural effect of a visual-spatial span training and suggested that genetic factors such as the COMT Val158/108Met polymorphism may have to be considered in future studies of such training

miR-132-3p Priming Enhances the Effects of Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Derived Exosomes on Ameliorating Brain Ischemic Injury

Backgrounds/aims: Mesenchymal stromal cell-derived exosomes (MSC-EXs) could exert protective effects on recipient cells by transferring the contained microRNAs (miRs), and miR-132-3p is one of angiogenic miRs. However, whether the combination of MSC-EXs and miR-132-3p has better effects in ischemic cerebrovascular disease remains unknown. Methods: Mouse MSCs transfected with scrambler control or miR-132-3p mimics were used to generate MSC-EXs and miR-132-3p-overexpressed MSC-EXs (MSC-EXsmiR-132-3p). The effects of EXs on hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-injured ECs in ROS generation, apoptosis, and barrier function were analyzed. The levels of RASA1, Ras, phosphorylations of PI3K, Akt and endothelial nitric oxide synthesis (eNOS), and tight junction proteins (Claudin-5 and ZO-1) were measured. Ras and PI3K inhibitors were used for pathway analysis. In transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) mouse model, the effects of MSC-EXs on the cerebral vascular ROS production and apoptosis, cerebral vascular density (cMVD), Evans blue extravasation, brain water content, neurological deficit score (NDS), and infarct volume were determined. Results: MSC-EXs could deliver their carried miR-132-3p into target ECs, which functionally downregulated the target protein RASA1, while upregulated the expression of Ras and the downstream PI3K phosphorylation. Compared to MSC-EXs, MSC-EXsmiR-132-3p were more effective in decreasing ROS production, apoptosis, and tight junction disruption in H/R-injured ECs. These effects were associated with increased levels of phosphorylated Akt and eNOS, which could be abolished by PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) or Ras inhibitor (NSC 23766). In the tMCAO mouse model, the infusion of MSC-EXsmiR-132-3p was more effective than MSC-EXs in reducing cerebral vascular ROS production, BBB dysfunction, and brain injury. Conclusion: Our results suggest that miR-132-3p promotes the beneficial effects of MSC-EXs on brain ischemic injury through protecting cerebral EC functions