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The social motivation hypothesis of autism posits that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired motivation to seek out social experience early in life that interferes with the development of social functioning. This framework suggests that impaired mesolimbic dopamine function underlies compromised responses to social rewards in ASD. Although this hypothesis is supported by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, no molecular imaging study has evaluated striatal dopamine functioning in response to rewards in ASD. Here, we examined striatal functioning during monetary incentive processing in ASD and controls using simultaneous positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI. Using a bolus + infusion protocol with the D2/D3 dopamine receptor antagonist [11C]raclopride, voxel-wise binding potential (BPND) was compared between groups (controls = 12, ASD = 10) in the striatum. Striatal clusters showing significant between-group BPND differences were used as seeds in whole-brain fMRI general functional connectivity analyses. Relative to controls, the ASD group demonstrated decreased phasic dopamine release to incentives in the bilateral putamen and left caudate, as well as increased functional connectivity between a PET-derived right putamen seed and the precuneus and insula. Within the ASD group, decreased phasic dopamine release in the putamen was related to poorer theory-of-mind skills. Our findings that ASD is characterized by impaired striatal phasic dopamine release to incentives provide support for the social motivation hypothesis of autism. PET-fMRI may be a suitable tool to evaluate novel ASD therapeutics targeting the striatal dopamine system.Following the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the La-H system, we studied the formation of new chemical compounds in the barium-hydrogen system at pressures from 75 to 173 GPa. Using in situ generation of hydrogen from NH3BH3, we synthesized previously unknown superhydride BaH12 with a pseudocubic (fcc) Ba sublattice in four independent experiments. Density functional theory calculations indicate close agreement between the theoretical and experimental equations of state. In addition, we identified previously known P6/mmm-BaH2 and possibly BaH10 and BaH6 as impurities in the samples. Ab initio calculations show that newly discovered semimetallic BaH12 contains H2 and H3- molecular units and detached H12 chains which are formed as a result of a Peierls-type distortion of the cubic cage structure. Barium dodecahydride is a unique molecular hydride with metallic conductivity that demonstrates the superconducting transition around 20 K at 140 GPa.Small nucleolar RNA host gene 6 (SNHG6) is a newly discovered long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), while the regulatory mechanism of SNHG6 in chondrosarcoma is largely unknown. Here we found that SNHG6 expression was upregulated and showed positive correlation with the progression of chondrosarcoma. Functional assays demonstrated that SNHG6 was required for the proliferation, migration, and invasion of chondrosarcoma cells. Mechanistic study revealed that SNHG6 could recruit EZH2 and maintain high level of H3K27me3 to repress the transcription of tumor-suppressor genes, including KLF6. KLF6 was found to bind to the promoter region of SP1 and restrained its transcription, while SP1 could be recruited to the promoter region of SNHG6 and promoted its transcription to form a positive loop. In summary, this study reveals that SP1-induced SNHG6 forms a positive loop to facilitate the carcinogenesis of chondrosarcoma through the suppression of KLF6 by recruiting EZH2, which manifests the oncogenic function of SNHG6 in chondrosarcoma.Although objects are the fundamental units of our representation interpreting the environment around us, it is still not clear how we handle and organize the incoming sensory information to form object representations. By utilizing previously well-documented advantages of within-object over across-object information processing, here we test whether learning involuntarily consistent visual statistical properties of stimuli that are free of any traditional segmentation cues might be sufficient to create object-like behavioral effects. Using a visual statistical learning paradigm and measuring efficiency of 3-AFC search and object-based attention, we find that statistically defined and implicitly learned visual chunks bias observers’ behavior in subsequent search tasks the same way as objects defined by visual boundaries do. These results suggest that learning consistent statistical contingencies based on the sensory input contributes to the emergence of object representations.Close to the triple point, the surface of ice is covered by a thin liquid layer (so-called quasi-liquid layer) which crucially impacts growth and melting rates. Experimental probes cannot observe the growth processes below this layer, and classical models of growth by vapor deposition do not account for the formation of premelting films. Here, we develop a mesoscopic model of liquid-film mediated ice growth, and identify the various resulting growth regimes. At low saturation, freezing proceeds by terrace spreading, but the motion of the buried solid is conveyed through the liquid to the outer liquid-vapor interface. At higher saturations water droplets condense, a large crater forms below, and freezing proceeds undetectably beneath the droplet. Our approach is a general framework that naturally models freezing close to three phase coexistence and provides a first principle theory of ice growth and melting which may prove useful in the geosciences.The efficient transformation of CO2 into chemicals and fuels is a key challenge for the decarbonisation of the synthetic production chain. IDE397 molecular weight Formic acid (FA) represents the first product of CO2 hydrogenation and can be a precursor of higher added value products or employed as a hydrogen storage vector. Bases are typically required to overcome thermodynamic barriers in the synthesis of FA, generating waste and requiring post-processing of the formate salts. The employment of buffers can overcome these limitations, but their catalytic performance has so far been modest. Here, we present a methodology utilising IL as buffers to catalytically transform CO2 into FA with very high efficiency and comparable performance to the base-assisted systems. The combination of multifunctional basic ionic liquids and catalyst design enables the synthesis of FA with very high catalytic efficiency in TONs of >8*105 and TOFs > 2.1*104 h-1.