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There is conflicting literature evidence regarding the independent effects of insulin resistance and concomitant hyperinsulinemia on bone mineral density. In addition, it is still under debate whether the net effect is favorable or unfavorable for the fracture risk. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study.

The composition of grape seeds from two white dessert (‘Bolgar’ and ‘Super ran Bolgar’) and two red wine Bulgarian varieties (‘Mavroud’ and ‘Shiroka melnishka loza’) was investigated. The content of proteins was established by Kjeldhal method and was found to be 6.3 – 8.9%. The content of carbohydrates - calculated as the difference of mean values: 100 - (amount in percentage of oil, moisture, protein and ash) - was 65.5 – 70.9%. The content of oil – by extraction with n-hexane - was 11.6 - 16.5%. The content of phospholipids was determined spectrophotometrically after isolation by chromatographic methods and was found to be 0.6 - 0.9%, including phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidic acids. The sterol content determined by gas chromatography was 0.3 – 0.4% while β-sitosterol (70.0 – 72.1%) and campesterol (18.5 – 19.9%) were the major components. In the phospholipids and sterol esters, saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids presented higher amount than the triacylglycerols. Fatty acids of sterol esters and phospholipids were determined by gas chromatography after isolation. The quantity of palmitic acid in the phospholipid fraction was 43.4 – 59.4%, the content of oleic acid was 9.0 – 14.0% and the content of linoleic acid was 10.0 – 24.5% while in the sterol esters, the predominant ones were mainly linoleic (40.7 – 53.8%), oleic (24.9 – 35.5%) and palmitic acids (13.0 – 16.7%). Linoleic (68.5 – 72.3%) and oleic acids (16.3 – 18.7%) were found to be the main components of the triacylglycerols. The tocopherol content varied from 67.7 mg kg-1 to 290.5 mg kg-1 where α-tocopherol (74.8 – 84.4%) was the predominant component.

Considerable uncertainty exists about the defining brain changes associated with bipolar disorder (BD). Understanding and quantifying the sources of uncertainty can help generate novel clinical hypotheses about etiology and assist in the development of biomarkers for indexing disease progression and prognosis. Here we were interested in quantifying case–control differences in intracranial volume (ICV) and each of eight subcortical brain measures: nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate, hippocampus, globus pallidus, putamen, thalamus, lateral ventricles. In a large study of 1710 BD patients and 2594 healthy controls, we found consistent volumetric reductions in BD patients for mean hippocampus (Cohen’s d=−0.232; P=3.50 × 10−7) and thalamus (d=−0.148; P=4.27 × 10−3) and enlarged lateral ventricles (d=−0.260; P=3.93 × 10−5) in patients. No significant effect of age at illness onset was detected. Stratifying patients based on clinical subtype (BD type I or type II) revealed that BDI patients had significantly larger lateral ventricles and smaller hippocampus and amygdala than controls. However, when comparing BDI and BDII patients directly, we did not detect any significant differences in brain volume. This likely represents similar etiology between BD subtype classifications. Exploratory analyses revealed significantly larger thalamic volumes in patients taking lithium compared with patients not taking lithium. We detected no significant differences between BDII patients and controls in the largest such comparison to date. Findings in this study should be interpreted with caution and with careful consideration of the limitations inherent to meta-analyzed neuroimaging comparisons.

Three types of aluminum alloys such as AlSi7Mg, AlSi12Cu2MgNi and AlZn4 are refined by introducing nanoparticles of high melting temperature compounds—nitrides and carbides as well as diamonds in the melt. Their influence on microstructure, mechanical and some electrochemical properties of castings of these alloys is investigated. It is established that the microstructure is refined, the porosity is decreased, and some mechanical and electrochemical properties such as protection potential in drinking water are increased. The mechanism of grain refinement and silicon modification is discussed.

The profile of brain structural abnormalities in schizophrenia is still not fully understood, despite decades of research using brain scans. To validate a prospective meta-analysis approach to analyzing multicenter neuroimaging data, we analyzed brain MRI scans from 2028 schizophrenia patients and 2540 healthy controls, assessed with standardized methods at 15 centers worldwide. We identified subcortical brain volumes that differentiated patients from controls, and ranked them according to their effect sizes. Compared with healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia had smaller hippocampus (Cohen’s d=−0.46), amygdala (d=−0.31), thalamus (d=−0.31), accumbens (d=−0.25) and intracranial volumes (d=−0.12), as well as larger pallidum (d=0.21) and lateral ventricle volumes (d=0.37). Putamen and pallidum volume augmentations were positively associated with duration of illness and hippocampal deficits scaled with the proportion of unmedicated patients. Worldwide cooperative analyses of brain imaging data support a profile of subcortical abnormalities in schizophrenia, which is consistent with that based on traditional meta-analytic approaches. This first ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group study validates that collaborative data analyses can readily be used across brain phenotypes and disorders and encourages analysis and data sharing efforts to further our understanding of severe mental illness.

ABSTRACTGlycation is a condensation reaction between reducing sugars and primary amino groups in proteins. It starts with formation of Schiff bases and Amadori products (called early glycation products), which are later converted into complex heterocyclic compounds designated as advanced glycation end (AGE) products. Until recently glycation was studied mainly in higher eukaryotes and only our recent studies [6] showed that glycation took place also bacteria. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of growth media and nutrient broth ingredients on glycation of proteins in Escherichia coli.The obtained results indicate that glycation is more extensive in rich media and depends on the type and source of nutrient broth ingredients (yeast extract and protein hydrolysate). Sometimes different batches of one ingredient produced by the same manufacturer might have different effect on glycation. Since the increased glycation decreases stability and biological activity of recombinant proteins, we highly recommend all nutrient broth ingredients to be tested for their effect on glycation before use for manufacturing of such proteins.

Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) has been used to study the redox behavior of Ni(II) ions in nickel sodium mordenite (NiNaM) and decationated nickel mordenite (NiHM). The TPR profiles suggest that Ni(II) ions occupy nonequivalent sites with different cooridination states in the mordenite. The reducibility of Ni(II) depends strongly on the zeolite acidity.

The dehydrogenation of tetralin on two zeolite catalysts has been studied, the experiments were planned statistically according to the Orthogonal Central Composite Design. In order to determine the influence of coke deposits, the time-on-stream theory of catalyst decay is applied too.

The dehydrogenation of tetralin on cobalt and nickel modified NaX zeolites has been studied in a flow system at atmospheric pressure and 390–430 °C. A method for comparing the activity of the zeolite catalysts is proposed.

The catalytic activity of synthetic and natural nickel exchanged mordenites of different compositions has been investigated in dimerization of n-butenes at high pressure in the liquid phase. High selectivities to n-octenes and methylheptenes were found. It is suggested that the mordenite channel structure influences the product distribution.

Two series of nickel mordenite catalysts have been prepared on the basis of Na-mordenite and H-mordenite. Their catalytic activity in cyclohexane conversion has been studied. It has been found that the properties of the catalysts are strongly dependent on the acidity of mordenite.

The paper presents the results from a research on parts used in mechatronic products and produced by the permanent-mold casting methods of gravity die casting and die casting. An overview and analysis of different definitions for mechatronic systems and examples of mechatronic products is made. As a result, a new definition for a mechatronic product is proposed. Various classifications of mechatronic products are analysed and deemed too general for the purposes of the current research. Permanent-mold casting methods are analysed and their advantages and disadvantages are pointed out. Arguments as to why these methods are suitable for producing mechatronic product parts are given. Based on the proposed definition for mechatronic product, the analysed classifications, and the overview of the permanent-mold casting methods a new classification is proposed. The classification is used for classifying permanent-mold cast parts used in mechatronic products. The parts are classified in six groups with regard to their application in the mechatronic product. In addition, the classification gives information regarding permanent-mold casting method used, material, and mechatronic product that includes the part.

A test rig for study of parameters of a process of automated assembly of luster terminals is designed and developed. The aim of the developed test rig is to study the accuracy of positioning of the transport system during the automated assembly process of luster terminals. On the basis of data collected during the experiments, reliability analysis of the whole system has been made.

Correction to: Molecular Psychiatry (2015); advance online publication 2 June 2015; doi:10.1038/mp.2015.63 Following publication of the above article, the authors noticed that the forty-third author’s last name was presented incorrectly. The author’s name should have been listed as HE Hulshoff Pol. The publisher regrets the error.

A distinct correlation between the reducibility of metal oxides in hydrogen and the strength of the oxygen bond in their surface layer has been found. Simultaneously it has been shown that the widely accepted concept for a correlation between the melting points of oxides and their reducibility needs a critical reconsideration.

Based on literature data and examples it is shown that the bond strengths of surface oxygen in metal oxides and complex oxide systems can successfully be used to predict their reducibility.