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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by selective loss of motor neurons (MNs). A number of causative genetic mutations underlie the disease, including mutations in the fused in sarcoma (FUS) gene, which can lead to both juvenile and late-onset ALS. Although ALS results from MN death, there is evidence that dysfunctional glial cells, including oligodendroglia, contribute to neurodegeneration. Here, we used human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) with a R521H or a P525L mutation in FUS and their isogenic controls to generate oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) by inducing SOX10 expression from a TET-On SOX10 cassette. Mutant and control iPSCs differentiated efficiently into OPCs. RNA sequencing identified a myelin sheath-related phenotype in mutant OPCs. Lipidomic studies demonstrated defects in myelin-related lipids, with a reduction of glycerophospholipids in mutant OPCs. Interestingly, FUSR521H OPCs displayed a decrease in the phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylethanolamine ratio, known to be associated with maintaining membrane integrity. A proximity ligation assay further indicated that mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAM) were diminished in both mutant FUS OPCs. Moreover, both mutant FUS OPCs displayed increased susceptibility to ER stress when exposed to thapsigargin, and exhibited impaired mitochondrial respiration and reduced Ca2+ signaling from ER Ca2+ stores. Taken together, these results demonstrate a pathological role of mutant FUS in OPCs, causing defects in lipid metabolism associated with MAM disruption manifested by impaired mitochondrial metabolism with increased susceptibility to ER stress and with suppressed physiological Ca2+ signaling. As such, further exploration of the role of oligodendrocyte dysfunction in the demise of MNs is crucial and will provide new insights into the complex cellular mechanisms underlying ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Disruption of MAM integrity in mutant FUS oligodendroglial progenitors from hiPSCs" published in Acta Neuropathologica. The correction states that there was an error in Figure 5 of the article, where the incorrect dataset was used to compare FUSR521H and Isogenic 1 OPCs. The corrected figures are provided in the notice. The article provides information on dysregulated glycerophospholipid metabolism in mutant FUS iPSC-derived OPCs. It also includes joint-pathway analysis, volcano plots, and bar graphs to illustrate the dysregulated genes and metabolic pathways. The correction notice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. [Extracted from the article]

With the increasing popularity of herbal medicine, high standards of the high quality control of herbs becomes a necessity, with the herb recognition as one of the great challenges. Due to the complicated processing procedure of the herbs, methods of manual recognition that require chemical materials and expert knowledge, such as fingerprint and experience, have been used. Automatic methods can partially alleviate the problem by deep learning based herb image recognition, but most studies require powerful and expensive computation hardware, which is not friendly to resource-limited settings. In this paper, we introduce a deep learning-enabled mobile application which can run entirely on common low-cost smartphones for efficient and robust herb image recognition with a quite competitive recognition accuracy in resource-limited situations. We hope this application can make contributions to the increasing accessibility of herbal medicine worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compound Kushen injection (CKI), a medicine in widespread clinical use in China, has proven therapeutic effects on cancer. However, few molecular mechanism analyses have been carried out. To address this problem, bioinformatics approaches combining weighted gene co-expression network analysis with network pharmacology methods were undertaken to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of CKI in the treatment of esophageal cancer (ESCA). First, the key gene modules related to the clinical traits of ESCA were analysed by WCGNA. Based on the results, the hub genes related to CKI treatment for ESCA were explored through network pharmacology. Molecular docking simulation was performed to recognize the binding activity of hub genes with CKI compounds. The results showed that the potential hub targets, including EGFR, ErbB2, CCND1 and IGF1R, are therapeutic targets of CKI for the treatment of ESCA. Moreover, these targets were significantly enriched in many pathways related to cancer and signalling pathways, such as the PI3K-Akt signalling pathway and ErbB signalling pathway. In conclusion, this research partially highlighted the molecular mechanism of CKI in the treatment of ESCA, offering great potential in the identification of the effective compounds in CKI and biomarkers for ESCA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Bi2WO6 nanosheets were synthesized via molten salt (M-Bi2WO6) and hydrothermal method (H-Bi2WO6), respectively. Powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy measurements demonstrated that the as-prepared Bi2WO6 samples preferred orientated alone {001} plane in both hydrothermal and molten salt system, enabling the formation of Bi2WO6 nanosheets. The results of UV-vis diffuse reflection spectrum showed that the M-Bi2WO6 nanosheets exhibited an obvious red shift in visible light absorption band in comparison with H-Bi2WO6 nanosheets, and the band gap of M-Bi2WO6 and H-Bi2WO6 nanosheets was 2.49 and 2.62 eV, respectively. As a result, the M-Bi2WO6 nanosheets reached as high as 97.13% of photodegradation efficiency of Rhodamine B under 180 min of sunlight irradiation, which was two times higher than that of the H-Bi2WO6 nanosheets (86.88%). Meanwhile, the photodegradation rate over M-Bi2WO6 (97.30%) for TC degradation was about two times higher than that of H-Bi2WO6 (78.58%). The much-enhanced photocatalytic performance of M-Bi2WO6 nanosheets was attributed to the better crystallinity, higher light-harvesting capability and superior sorption capacity. Basing on the detailed experimental study and analysis, this work could be a practical guidance for the fabrication of Bi2WO6-based microstructures with enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By substituting Sr or Ba for Ca ions, a series of single-phased K(Ca, M)Gd(PO):0.01Eu (M = Sr, Ba) phosphors have been successfully synthesized via the solid-state reaction. The phase formations, structures, photoluminescence (PL) properties and thermal stability of the two cation substituting K(Ca, M)Gd(PO):0.01Eu phosphors were studied in detail. The emission peaks showed blue-shift and the CIE coordinates changed from (0.2117, 0.3761) to (0.2096, 0.3195) and (0.1969, 0.2857) corresponding to the Sr or Ba substituting due to the weaker crystal field splitting of Eu. Further, the optimal substitution proportions of Sr, Ba for Ca were determined to be 0.40 and 0.08 mol, the thermal quenching luminescence properties were enhanced and the emission intensity of Sr or Ba substituting KCaGd(PO):0.01Eu was remained 58.88 or 66.86% of that measured at room temperature when the temperature increased to 423 K. All these properties predict that K(Ca, M)Gd(PO):0.01Eu (M = Sr, Ba) phosphors have potential applications in the field of phosphor-converted devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bluish-green KBaY(BO):Eu phosphors were prepared by high-temperature solid state reaction method. The photoluminescence properties, concentration quenching and energy transfer as well as the luminescence decays were investigated. The emission spectrum showed a single intensive band centered at 500 nm, which correspond to the 4 f 5 d → 4 f transition of Eu. The optimal concentration for the luminescence of Eu in KBaY(BO):Eu was determined to be 0.03 mol. The critical energy transfer distance was calculated as 21.34 Å. The corresponding concentration quenching mechanism was verified to be a dipole-dipole interaction. And the blue-shift behavior of KBaY(BO):Eu with increasing temperature was analyzed by the configurational coordinate diagram. The results indicate that the KBaY(BO):Eu phosphors have potential applications as an ultraviolet-convertible phosphor due to its effective excitation in the ultraviolet rang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing energy transfer process, Ce, Tb co-doped BaZrSiO (BZS) phosphors have been successfully prepared via solid state reaction process. The phase structure, photoluminescence properties, decay curves, thermal stability, and the energy transfer mechanism were investigated in this paper. The critical distance calculated by quenching concentration method was 8.84 Å, and the energy transfer process from Ce to Tb in BZS:Ce/Tb phosphors had been demonstrated to be a resonant type via a dipole-quadrupole mechanism. The emission colors of the phosphors could be tuned from blue (0.1625, 0.1261) to green (0.2979, 0.5473) through the corresponding Ce to Tb energy transfer. Moreover, thermal quenching luminescence results revealed that BZS:Ce, Tb exhibited good thermal stability. The Tb intensity of BZS:0.04Ce, 0.02Tb sample showed about 60.88 % of its initial emission intensity at room temperature. The above results indicate that the phosphors may be potentially used as single-component blue-green emission phosphors for application in light emitting device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eu doped KCaY(PO) (KCYP) phosphors with irregular, hemispherical and spherical morphologies are successfully synthesized via a sol-gel method. The crystalline structure, morphology and luminescence properties of these phosphors are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Under the excitation wavelength of near-ultraviolet (n-UV) 392 nm, the as-prepared KCYP:0.03Eu phosphor exhibits an intense orange-red emission at 588 nm corresponding to D → F transition of Eu. The effect of synthesis conditions such as the dose of citric acid and pH of the precursor solution on the morphology and luminescence intensity of the phosphors is discussed in detail. The morphologies of KCYP:0.03Eu phosphors vary from a small amount of spheres to aggregated hemispheres and then to smooth spheres by increasing the molar ratio of citric acid to metal ions in the host. The highest emission intensity can be obtained at the molar ratio of citric acid to metal ions 2:1 and pH = 8.0, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing microwave absorbers with broadband perfect absorption at high temperatures remains a challenge for researchers due to the variability of material properties with temperature. Herein, inspired by the absorption model of Papilio blumei, this work establishes a method to realize broadband metamaterial microwave blackbody using polymer ceramics and bionic metamaterial structures. The size of the high-temperature resistive film and biomimetic hole of the bionic metamaterial microwave absorber (MMA) is optimized based on the trust region framework method. The absorption rate of the MMA reached 99% across the C ~ Ku bands, which breaks the Plank-Rozanov limit by multiple absorption mechanisms (polarization loss, conductive loss, and resonance loss). It is evident from quantitative calculations and power loss density distributions that resonant losses are crucial for microwave energy absorption. Experiment results reveal that the MMA can maintain excellent absorption performance from room temperature to 1000 ℃ which guarantees the potential application for microwave absorber at evaluated temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]