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The HO···XCCNgF and HN···XCCNgF (X = Cl and Br; Ng = Ar, Kr, and Xe) complexes have been studied with quantum chemical calculations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level. The results show that the inserted noble gas atom has an enhancing effect on the strength of halogen bond, and this enhancement is weakened with the increase of noble gas atomic number. The methyl and Li substituents in the electron donor strengthen the halogen bond. The interaction energy increases from −3.75 kcal/mol in HN-BrCCF complex to −9.66 kcal/mol in HLiN-BrCCArF complex. These complexes have been analyzed with atoms in molecules, natural bond orbital, molecular electrostatic potentials, and energy decomposition calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The symptom-related neurobiology characteristic of schizophrenia in the brain from a network perspective is still poorly understood, leading to a lack of potential biologically-based markers and difficulty identifying therapeutic targets. We aim to test the dysregulated cross-network interactions among the Salience Network (SN), Central Executive Network (CEN) and Default Mode Network (DMN) and how they contributed to different symptoms in schizophrenia patients.Methods: We examined network interactions among the SN, CEN and DMN in 76 patients with schizophrenia vs. 80 well-matched controls using dynamic causal modeling (DCM). We further analyzed the relation between network dynamics and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).Results: We observed that the DMN, CEN and SN across healthy controls and schizophrenia patients showed several similarities within or between-network pattern in the resting state. Comparing schizophrenia to controls, SN-centered cross-network interactions were most significantly reduced. Crucially, the strength of connections from CEN subnetwork 1 to DMN subnetwork 1 was positively correlated with the Positive Score of PANSS. The connection from the DMN subnetwork 2 to CEN subnetwork 2 was negatively correlated with the Negative Score of PANSS.Conclusions: Our study provides strong evidence for the dysregulation among SN, CEN and DMN in a triple-network perspective in schizophrenia. The connection between DMN and CEN could be clinically-relevant neurobiological signature of schizophrenia symptoms. Our study indicated that the description of brain triple network hypothesis could be a novel and possible bio-marker for schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: CD24+CK19+/CD24+SOX9+ resident liver cells are activated and expanded after chronic liver injury in a ductular reaction. However, the sources and functions of these cells in liver damage remain disputed. Results: The current study combined genetic lineage tracing with in vitro small-molecule-based reprogramming to define liver progenitor cells (LPCs) derived from hepatic parenchymal and non-parenchymal tissues. tdTom+ hepatocytes were isolated from ROSA26tdTomato mice following AAV8-Tbg-Cre-mediated recombination, EpCAM+ biliary epithelial cells (BECs) from wild-type intrahepatic bile ducts and ALB/GFP−EpCAM− cells were isolated from AlbCreERT/R26GFP mice. A cocktail of small molecules was used to convert the isolated cells into LPCs. These in vitro cultured LPCs with CD24 and SOX9 expression regained the ability to proliferate. Transcriptional profiling showed that the in-vitro cultured LPCs derived from the resident LPCs in non-parenchymal tissues expressed Lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) at high levels. Accordingly, endogenous Cd24a+Lcn2+ LPCs were identified by integration of sc-RNA-sequencing and pathological datasets of liver dysfunction which indicates that LPCs produced by ductular reactions might also originate from the resident LPCs. Transplantation of in-vitro cultured Cd24a+Lcn2+ LPCs into CCl4-induced fibrotic livers exacerbated liver damage and dysfunction, possibly due to LCN2-dependent macrophage inflammatory response. Conclusions: CD24+LCN2+ LPCs constituted the expanding ductular reaction and contributed to macrophage-mediated inflammation in chronic liver damage. The current findings highlight the roles of LPCs from distinct origins and expose the possibility of targeting LPCs in the treatment of chronic hepatic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, increasing number of entities on the smart grid begin to establish their local energy generator for ensuring reliability and resilience of power supply. These 'microgrids' can either connect to the power grid or isolate themselves from the grid by consuming their locally generated or stored energy. In reality, some microgrids may have excessive energy while the others may have to request extra energy from the main grid. To better balance the demand and supply of the distributed smart microgrids, it is desired to develop peer-to-peer (P2P) energy exchange models that enable microgrids to interactively exchange their local energy instead of consuming energy delivered from the main grid. However, in this scenario, all the microgrids have to disclose their private information (e.g., demand load and energy storage amount) to each other in the exchange. To tackle these issues, in this paper, we first formulate several novel energy exchange optimization problems that minimize the global energy loss during the exchange in different scenarios, and then develop an efficient and privacy-preserving scheme to solve the energy exchange optimization problems without private information disclosure. We also extend the privacy-preserving scheme to a collusion-resistant scheme in which all the microgrids cannot learn any additional information through colluding with each other. The performance of our proposed approaches is experimentally validated on real microgrid data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Abnormal expression of Retinoid X Receptor α (RXRα) seems to be a frequent incident in a variety of cancers. However, the expression pattern and the mechanisms in gastric carcinoma (GC) remain unclear. Methods In GC tissues and cell lines, the expression levels of RXRα mRNA and protein were detected by Q-PCR and Western blot, respectively; the localization of RXRα was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) or immunocytochemistry (ICC). The effect of IL-1β on RXRα expression and localization was detected by Western blot and ICC. Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway was assessed via Western blot. Results RXRα expression was markedly elevated at both mRNA and protein levels in GC tissues and cell lines (all P < 0.05). The abnormal overexpression of RXRα was predominantly visualized in cytoplasm. IL-1β significantly induced cytoplasmic expression of RXRα in a time-dependent manner. Co-incubation with IL-1β enhanced phospho-IKKα (p-IKKα) expression and this effect could be inhibited by the specific inhibitor for NF-κB (all P < 0.01). Conclusions IL-1β upregulated RXRα through activation of NF-κB signaling and these suggested a possible clinic significance of retinoid receptor expression in the diagnosis and treatment of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Polyamidoamine dendrimer modified magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle/DNA/PEI (25kDa) ternary complexes were used for the magnetofection of mammalian cells. The results indicated that the transfection efficiencies of COS 7 cells with ternary magnetoplexes significantly increased when a magnetic field was applied, especially in the presence of 10% serum. Further evidence from Prussian blue staining of iron inside the cells and intracellular trafficking of Cy-3 labeled DNA demonstrated that the magnetic field quickly gathered the magnetoplexes to the surface of target cells and enhanced the uptake of the ternary magnetoplexes by the cells. This represents a novel strategy for polycation-based in vitro gene delivery enhanced by a magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence of structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia, the current study aimed to explore the effects of antipsychotic treatment on gray matter (GM) volume using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and investigate the relationship between brain structure and treatment response. The GM volumes of 33 patients with first-episode schizophrenia were calculated with voxel-based morphometry (VBM), with 33 matched healthy controls. Longitudinal volume changes within subjects after 4-month antipsychotic treatment were also evaluated. Correlation between volumetric changes and clinical symptoms derived from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were further investigated. Compared with healthy controls, decreased GM volumes in the frontal gyrus were observed in schizophrenia patients. After 4-month treatment, patients showed significantly decreased GM volume primarily in the bilateral frontal, temporal and left parietal brain regions. In addition, the GM volume changes of the left postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with negative symptoms improvement, and the correlation analysis revealed the total PANSS scores changes were associated with GM volume changes in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus. Besides, non-responders had reduced GM volume in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus compared with responders and healthy controls. Our results suggest that the abnormality in the right frontal gyrus exists in the early stage of schizophrenia. Moreover, the relationship between antipsychotics and structural changes was identified. The GM volume might have the potential to reflect the symptom improvement in schizophrenia patients. And MRI may assist in predicting the antipsychotic treatment response in first-episode schizophrenia patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the functional network properties in first-episode schizophrenia (SZ) patients at baseline and after 4-months treatment with second-generation antipsychotic drugs.Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory approaches were utilized to evaluate the functional integration and segregation of brain networks in 36 first-episode patients (20 male/16 female) with SZ and 36 age and sex matched healthy controls (20 male/16 female).Results: Compared with healthy controls, SZ at baseline showed lower clustering coefficient (Cp) and local network efficiency (Eloc), and this abnormal pattern was modulated with treatment of antipsychotic drugs at follow-up. Longitudinally, the increase of Cp was associated with the improvement of negative symptom. We found that the strength of functional connectivity between brain regions were significantly increased in three connections after treatment, mainly involving the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes.Conclusion: The current study suggested that antipsychotic drugs could modulate the faulty local clustering of the functional connectome in SZ. Furthermore, Cp, the parameter that reflects local clustering of topological organization, demonstrated the potential to be a connectome-based biomarker of treatment response to second-generation antipsychotics in patients with SZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the study was to investigate cerebral blood flow (CBF) and its connectivity (an across-subject covariance measure) patterns of schizophrenia (SZ) patients with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). A total of demographically matched 25 SZ patients with AVHs, 25 without AVHs, and 25 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting state perfusion imaging using a pulsed arterial spin labeling sequence. CBF and its connectivity were analyzed and then CBF topological properties were calculated. AVHs patients exhibited decreased CBF in the bilateral superior and middle frontal gyri and postcentral gyri, and right supplementary motor area compared with SZ patients without AVHs. SZ patients without AVHs showed reduced CBF in the left middle frontal gyrus relative to HCs. Moreover, AVHs groups showed distinct connectivity pattern, an intermediate level between HCs and patients without AVHs in the global efficiency. Our study demonstrates aberrant CBF in the brain regions associated with inner speech monitoring and language processing in SZ patients with AVHs. The complex network measures showed by CBF-derived functional connectivity indicate dysconnectivity between different functional units within the network of AVHs in SZ. Our findings might shed light on the neural underpinnings behind AVHs in this devastating disease at the level of CBF and its connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous findings across studies of structural abnormality in schizophrenia (SZ) have impeded the development a unified theory of white matter pathology. As a cardinal symptom of SZ, auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) has been suspected to be associated with improper communication among several brain regions, which might indicated white matter pathology. Participants comprised 25 first-episode (FE) patients with AVH, 25 patients without AVH and 25 healthy subjects. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures were calculated using the TBSS of FSL. Voxel-based ANOVA tests were performed among the three groups and threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) method correction was used for multiple comparisons. Voxel-based one-way ANOVA showed significant group effects for fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) values. Post-hoc t -tests indicated that schizophrenia patients had lower FA and higher RD values in the internal capsule and anterior corona radiata than control subjects. Post-hoc analyses exhibited more widespread fiber disruptions in AVH patients than non-AVH patients. These results hinted on the important role of projection fiber disruption in schizophrenia patients. In addition, the current study also suggested that direct comparison between studies using patients with different symptom profiles should be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are one of the cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia (SZ). Cerebral dysfunction may represent pathophysiological underpinnings behind AVHs in SZ. However, regional and network functional deficits for AVHs in SZ remain to be identified. Methods: Seventeen medication-naïve first-episode SZ patients with AVHs, 15 without AVHs, and 19 healthy controls (HCs) were studied using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We compared the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) among these subjects. Areas with both ALFF and ReHo alterations were used as seeds in functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Then we performed correlation analysis between image measures and symptoms and receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: One-way analysis of variance showed significant differences of ALFF and ReHo in the bilateral putamen, thereby being used as seeds. SZ patients with AVHs showed decreased ALFF in the left putamen, increased ReHo in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and increased right putamen-seeded FC with the left DLPFC and Broca's area relative to those without AVHs. Furthermore, the increased strength of the connectivity between the right putamen and left Broca's area correlated with the severity of SZ symptoms. Both patient groups demonstrated hypoconnectivity within frontal/parietal/temporal cortico-striatal-cerebellar networks compared with HCs. Conclusion: AVHs in SZ may be caused by abnormal regional function in the putamen and prefrontal cortex, as well as hyperconnectivity between them. The putamen-related regional and network functional deficits may reflect imbalance in neuromodulation of AVHs in SZ. Furthermore, dysconnectivity within cortico-striatal-cerebellar networks might subserve the pathogenesis of SZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SnO2/Al2O3 supports with different SnO2 loadings were prepared by using a deposition-precipitation method and characterized by using N2 and CO adsorption-desorption, XRD, H2 temperature-programmed reduction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. SnO2 dispersed finely on the Al2O3 surface with a capacity of 0.172 mmol 100 m−2, which equals 6.4 % SnO2 loading. Below this loading, no crystalline SnO2 can be detected owing to the formation of the sub-monolayer- or monolayer-dispersed SnO2 phase. Crystalline SnO2 can be observed only if the SnO2 loading reaches 9 %. With use of these SnO2/Al2O3 supports, all prepared Pd/SnO2/Al2O3 catalysts demonstrate increased activity compared to Pd/SnO2 and Pd/Al2O3 owing to the presence of more active oxygen species on SnO2/Al2O3 supports as well as their higher surface areas, which improve Pd dispersion. This result indicates that with SnO2/Al2O3 supports, less amount of Pd can be used to obtain catalysts with competitive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Porous films were fabricated from nonporous layer-by-layer multilayers composed of a blend of positively charged disulfide-containing polyamidoamine and poly(allylamine hydrochoride), and negatively charged poly(acrylic acid), followed by removal of cleavable disulfide-containing polycation after incubation in 1 mM DTT solution. The thickness of original multilayered films decreased with the increase of incubation time in DTT solution. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements and electrochemical analysis demonstrated the formation of nanopores with sizes ranging from 50 to 120 nm. The formed porous films were stable in buffer solution at pHs ranging from 7.4 to 1.6, whereas they showed slight changes in pore number and pore size when incubated in PBS buffer at a pH of 10.0. This research might provide a universal method for the fabrication of noncrosslinked porous multilayered films. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel ditopic chromogenic receptor, N-5-(8-hydroxy)quinoline-N′-4′-nitro-phenyl thiourea (1), was synthesized. The metal complex 1-Hg2+ showed sensitive and highly selective responses to F− over other anions such as CH3CO2 −, H2PO4 −, HSO4 − and Cl−. 1-Hg2+–F− complex formed, which promoted the intramolecular charge transfer and led to a dramatic spectral change. The color of 1-Hg2+ solution changed from colorless to red upon addition of F−. Thus, a colorimetric assay of F− was developed in acetonitrile by naked-eye detection. F− behaved linearly in the 8.0×10−6 to 2.0×10−5 molL−1 concentration range with LOD as 1.4×10−6 molL−1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Novel organic/inorganic hybrid silica nanoparticles with size below 200nm were one-pot prepared via Michael addition between 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) and polyethylenimine (PEI), followed by hydrolysis and polycondensation of silaxanes. In vitro transfection assay demonstrated that the transfection efficiencies of the nanoparticles were superior to PEI (25kDa) in the presence of 10% serum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SnO2 boosts! The cover picture shows how SnO2 is used to tune an Al2O3 surface to synthesize significantly improved supports for Pd for CO oxidation. In their Full Paper on p. 1604 ff., X. Wang et al. demonstrate that the addition of SnO2 maintains high surface areas and introduces active O species into the prepared SnO2/Al2O3 composite supports, thus improving Pd dispersion and strengthening its interaction with the supports. Consequently, the activity and stability of Pd/SnO2/Al2O3 are significantly improved. Intriguingly, the presence of H2O vapor further increases the catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]