Two new Andean species of Anolis lizard (Iguanidae: Dactyloinae) from southern Ecuador

ABSTRACT

We describe two new species of Anolis lizard that are sympatric on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes of southern Ecuador at elevations between 1440 and 1970 m. The new species may be distinguished from other Anolis by external anatomy, mitochondrial divergence and dewlap colour. We estimate the phylogenetic positions of the new species using Bayesian analysis of DNA sequence data including all species of Dactyloa-clade Anolis for which DNA data are available. Anolis hyacintogularis sp. nov. is sister to Anolis calimae, whereas Anolis lososi sp. nov. is sister to Anolis williamsmittermeierorum, herein reported for Ecuador for the first time. Individuals of both new species were collected within a protected area in southern Ecuador, Podocarpus National Park, which suggests that at least some populations of these species are well protected.

www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E55FA804-E3FD-4412-8FEB-5234E29E272D     

CDK5 downregulation enhances synaptic plasticity

CDK5 is a serine/threonine kinase that is involved in the normal function of the adult brain and plays a role in neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity. However, its over-regulation has been associated with Tau hyperphosphorylation and cognitive deficits. Our previous studies have demonstrated that CDK5 targeting using shRNA-miR provides neuroprotection and prevents cognitive deficits. Dendritic spine morphogenesis and forms of long-term synaptic plasticity—such as long-term potentiation (LTP)—have been proposed as essential processes of neuroplasticity. However, whether CDK5 participates in these processes remains controversial and depends on the experimental model. Using wild-type mice that received injections of CDK5 shRNA-miR in CA1 showed an increased LTP and recovered the PPF in deficient LTP of APPswe/PS1Δ9 transgenic mice. On mature hippocampal neurons CDK5, shRNA-miR for 12 days induced increased dendritic protrusion morphogenesis, which was dependent on Rac activity. In addition, silencing of CDK5 increased BDNF expression, temporarily increased phosphorylation of CaMKII, ERK, and CREB; and facilitated calcium signaling in neurites. Together, our data suggest that CDK5 downregulation induces synaptic plasticity in mature neurons involving Ca²⁺ signaling and BDNF/CREB activation.     

PARX model for football match predictions

We propose an innovative approach to model and predict the outcome of football matches based on the Poisson autoregression with exogenous covariates (PARX) model recently proposed by Agosto, Cavaliere, Kristensen, and Rahbek (Journal of Empirical Finance, 2016, 38(B), 640–663). We show that this methodology is particularly suited to model the goal distribution of a football team and provides a good forecast performance that can be exploited to develop a profitable betting strategy. This paper improves the strand of literature on Poisson‐based models, by proposing a specification able to capture the main characteristics of goal distribution. The betting strategy is based on the idea that the odds proposed by the market do not reflect the true probability of the match because they may also incorporate the betting volumes or strategic price settings in order to exploit betters' biases. The out‐of‐sample performance of the PARX model is better than the reference approach by Dixon and Coles (Applied Statistics, 1997, 46(2), 265–280). We also evaluate our approach in a simple betting strategy, which is applied to English football Premier League data for the 2013–2014, 2014–2015, and 2015–2016 seasons. The results show that the return from the betting strategy is larger than 30% in most of the cases considered and may even exceed 100% if we consider an alternative strategy based on a predetermined threshold, which makes it possible to exploit the inefficiency of the betting market.     

花尾胡椒鲷人工育苗技术的初步研究

１９９７,１９９８年４－７月在厦门集美进行了花尾胡椒鲷人工育苗技术的初步研究。选取网箱养殖的成熟亲鱼,采用ＬＲＨ－Ａ２,ＨＣＧ和ＤＯＭ进行人工催产并进行人工授精;以６０ｍ＾３的室内水泥池作育苗池,将受精卵置于育苗池中孵化,并进行鱼苗培育,后期培育移到海上网箱进行。     

燃油节能降污添加剂的研究

总结了现行的各种溶剂型节油降污添加剂的主要成份和作用机理。提出了一种复合汽油添加剂,并对该添加剂在汽油中的行为进行研究,指出了汽油中添加少量该添加剂后汽油理化性能的改变及发动机性能的改善。同时对各种现象进行解释。     

三维模型的直接分层软件研究与开发

探讨了从STEP中性物理文件中获取CAD模型几何拓扑信息的方法 ,提出了基于STEP的直接分层处理方法。研究了基于AutoCAD的直接分层处理技术 ,提出了可独立运行的基于DXF文件的面框模型的直接分层处理方法以及AutoCAD环境下基于AutoCAD实体模型的直接分层处理方法并予以实现。实践证明它是有效可行的