We introduce a new geometric framework for the set of symmetric positive-definite (SPD) matrices, aimed at characterizing deformations of SPD matrices by individual scaling of eigenvalues and rotation of eigenvectors of the SPD matrices. To characterize the deformation, the eigenvalue-eigenvector decomposition is used to find alternative representations of SPD matrices and to form a Riemannian ...

Skin picking disorder (SPD) is a newly recognized psychiatric disorder in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. A systematic review was conducted to assess the efficacy of pharmacological and behavioral interventions for SPD. Electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or uncontrolled trials involving at least 10 subjects that exami...

Salt stress, particularly short-term salt stress, is among the most serious abiotic factors limiting plant survival and growth in China. It has been established that exogenous spermidine (Spd) stimulates plant tolerance to salt stress. The present study utilized two zoysiagrass cultivars commonly grown in China that exhibit either sensitive (cv. Z081) or tolerant (cv. Z057) adaptation capacity ...

Polyamines are small, ubiquitous, nitrogenous compounds that scavenge reactive oxygen species and stabilize the structure and function of the photosynthetic apparatus in response to abiotic stresses. Molecular details underlying polyamine-mediated photoprotective mechanisms are not completely resolved. This study investigated the role of spermidine (Spd) in the structure and function of the pho...

INTRODUCTION The programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) protein is a critical regulator of T-cell activation and is also an important therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases. Little is known about the regulation and functional properties of the soluble PD-1 (sPD-1) variant. The aim of this study was to examine the role of sPD-1 in the regulation of human and murine rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHO...

In Rhodobacter sphaeroides, cytochrome c2 (cyt c2) is a periplasmic redox protein required for photosynthetic electron transfer. cyt c2-deficient mutants created by replacing the gene encoding the apoprotein for cyt c2 (cycA) with a kanamycin resistance cartridge are photosynthetically incompetent. Spontaneous mutations that suppress this photosynthesis deficiency (spd mutants) arise at a frequ...

Centrosomes are the main microtubule-organizing centers in animal cells. Centrosomes consist of a pair of centrioles surrounded by a matrix of pericentriolar material (PCM) that assembles from cytoplasmic components. In Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, interactions between the coiled-coil proteins SPD-5 and SPD-2 and the kinase PLK-1 are critical for PCM assembly. However, it is not known whethe...

In this paper, we aim to construct a deep neural network which embeds high dimensional symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrices into a more discriminative low dimensional SPD manifold. To this end, we develop two types of basic layers: a 2D fully connected layer which reduces the dimensionality of the SPD matrices, and a symmetrically clean layer which achieves non-linear mapping. Specificall...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of hyperprolactinemia following administration of conven- tional antipsychotic drugs requires further investigation. The current study is designed to evaluate the effect of sulpiride (SPD)-induced hyperprolactinemia on alterations to ovarian follicular growth, gonadotropins, and ovarian hormones and to analyze the extent of potential problems in mammary glands. MATER...