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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cause significant neurologic disease. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement of HIV has been extensively studied, with well-documented invasion of HIV into the brain in the initial stage of infection, while the acute effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the brain are unclear. Neuropathologic features of active HIV infection in the brain are well characterized whereas neuropathologic findings in acute COVID-19 are largely non-specific. On the other hand, neuropathologic substrates of chronic dysfunction in both infections, as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and post-COVID conditions (PCC)/long COVID are unknown. Thus far, neuropathologic studies on patients with HAND in the era of combined antiretroviral therapy have been inconclusive, and autopsy studies on patients diagnosed with PCC have yet to be published. Further longitudinal, multidisciplinary studies on patients with HAND and PCC and neuropathologic studies in comparison to controls are warranted to help elucidate the mechanisms of CNS dysfunction in both conditions.

Genetic and clinical association studies have identified disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) as a candidate risk gene for major mental illness. DISC1 is interrupted by a balanced chr(1;11) translocation in a Scottish family in which the translocation predisposes to psychiatric disorders. We investigate the consequences of DISC1 interruption in human neural cells using TALENs or CRISPR-Cas9 to target the DISC1 locus. We show that disruption of DISC1 near the site of the translocation results in decreased DISC1 protein levels because of nonsense-mediated decay of long splice variants. This results in an increased level of canonical Wnt signaling in neural progenitor cells and altered expression of fate markers such as Foxg1 and Tbr2. These gene expression changes are rescued by antagonizing Wnt signaling in a critical developmental window, supporting the hypothesis that DISC1-dependent suppression of basal Wnt signaling influences the distribution of cell types generated during cortical development.

SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films were designed for the special application of an aviation lighting system emitting green light. For optical components in this system to meet requirements such as a high transmittance and durability, SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films of 60 individual layers were fabricated by a plasma-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering method. As a result, the transmittance spectra were confirmed to have a flat top surface and a square bandwidth. The transmittances of the SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films in the range of 500 nm to 550 nm was approximately 96.14%. The reason for high transmittance was attributed to the almost matching between the designed and fabricated SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films. It was found that there was little difference in the total thickness between the designed and fabricated SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films without interlayer diffusion. The surface roughness and hardness of the SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films on a glass substrate was 2.32 nm ± 0.19 nm and 6.6 GPa, respectively. These results indicate that SiO2/Nb2O5 multilayer thin films can be applied not only to the optical filters used in aviation lighting devices, but also to various optics applications because of high transmittance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation mechanism of Cd–S–Se quantum dots (QDs) with a CdS/CdSe core–shell structure within a silicate glass system was investigated by monitoring the change in the first excitonic absorption peak of CdSe, CdS, and Cd–S–Se QDs as a function of the heat‐treatment (HT) duration. When a silicate glass containing QD formation components for CdSe or CdS single‐phased QDs was heat‐treated, CdSe QDs grew via Ostwald ripening, whereas CdS QDs hardly formed within the given silicate glass matrix. When the glass, including CdO, ZnSe, and ZnS, was utilized for the synthesis of Cd–S–Se QDs within the glass matrix, Cd–S–Se QDs were successfully formed and exhibited similar growth behavior to CdSe QDs during the initial stage of HT. The structural changes in the QD‐embedded glasses during HT were also monitored by Raman spectroscopy and discussed, and a possible formation mechanism of CdSe/CdS core–shell‐structured QDs within silicate glasses is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the most common way of laser sealing is using a glass frit paste and screen printer. Laser sealing using glass frit paste has some problems, such as pores, nonuniform height, imperfect hermetic sealing, etc. In order to overcome these problems, sealing using fiber types of sealant is attractive for packaging devices. In this work, (70-x)V2O5-5ZnO-22BaO-3B2O3-xM(PO3)n glasses (mol%) incorporated with xM(PO3)n concentration (where M = Mg, Al, n = 2, 3, respectively) were fabricated and their thermal, thermomechanical, and structural properties were investigated. Most importantly, for this type of sealing, the glass should have a thermal stability (ΔT) of ≥80 °C and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the glass and panel should be 1.0 ppm/°C. The highest thermal stability ΔT of the order of 93.2 °C and 112.9 °C was obtained for the 15 mol% of Mg(PO3)2 and Al(PO3)3 doped glasses, respectively. This reveals that the bond strength and connectivity is more strongly improved by trivalent Al(PO3)3. The CTE of a (70-x)V2O5-5ZnO-22BaO-3B2O3-xAl(PO3)3 glass system (mol%) (where x = 5–15, mol%) is in the range of 9.5–15.5 (×10−6/K), which is comparable with the CTE (9–10 (×10−6/K)) of commercial DSSC glass panels. Based on the results, the studied glass systems are considered to be suitable for laser sealing using fiber types of sealant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum dot embedded glasses (QDEGs) were prepared by the conventional melt‐quenching method to enhance its color conversion efficiency via optimizing the concentration of ZnS, ZnSe, and CdO within the silicate‐based glass matrix. The QDEG, which contained 0.875 ZnS, 0.625 ZnSe, and 0.75 CdO (in mol%) and was heat treated at 500°C for 10 hours showed promising color conversion with an improved quantum yield of up to 25%. Color coordination of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted with the QDEGs could be adjusted by tuning heat‐treatment conditions and thickness control of QDEGs. The practical feasibility of the QDEG for a white LED is demonstrated with a reasonable glass thickness for LED packaging process. The formation of Cd‐S‐Se quantum dots within a glass matrix was identified by Raman and HR‐TEM analyses. The effect of ZnSe and CdO on the formation of Cd‐S‐Se quantum dots within silicate glass is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nd3+-doped silicate glass (Nd-glass) was employed as a color filter for a white LED based on red and green phosphor (RG-LED), to manipulate the photoluminescence spectral shape and thus to provide a wider color gamut. The hypersensitive transition of Nd3+:4I9/2→4G5/2,2G7/2 was adjusted via glass composition and Nd concentration, and improved absorbance as well as reduced the absorption bandwidth. The effective absorption of the Nd-glass at ~580 nm reduced the spectral linewidth of the green and red emissions, improving the color reproduction range. The color gamut of the RG-LED was improved from 75.3% to 81.6% NTSC by the introduction of Nd-glass as a color filter. Reliability under high operating current and high temperature were also examined and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the glass systems, TeO2–ZnO–BaO (TZB), TeO2–ZnO–BaO–Nb2O5 (TZB–Nb) and TeO2–ZnO–BaO–MoO3 (TZB–Mo), were fabricated by the traditional melt-quench protocol for use as mid-infrared (mid-IR) transmitting optical material. The effect of Nb2O5 and MoO3 on the key glass material properties was studied through various techniques. From the Raman analysis, it was found that the structural modification was clear with the addition of both Nb2O5 and MoO3 in the TZB system. The transmittance of studied glasses was measured and found that the optical window covered a region from 0.4 to 6 μm. The larger linear refractive index was obtained for the Nb2O5-doped TZB glass system than that of other studied systems. High glass transition temperature, low thermo-mechanical coefficient and high Knoop hardness were noticed in the Nb2O5-doped TZB glass system due to the increase in cross-linking density and rigidity in the tellurite network. The results suggest that the Nb2O5-doped TZB optical glasses could be a promising material for mid-infrared transmitting optics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cause significant neurologic disease. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement of HIV has been extensively studied, with well-documented invasion of HIV into the brain in the initial stage of infection, while the acute effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the brain are unclear. Neuropathologic features of active HIV infection in the brain are well characterized whereas neuropathologic findings in acute COVID-19 are largely non-specific. On the other hand, neuropathologic substrates of chronic dysfunction in both infections, as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and post-COVID conditions (PCC)/long COVID are unknown. Thus far, neuropathologic studies on patients with HAND in the era of combined antiretroviral therapy have been inconclusive, and autopsy studies on patients diagnosed with PCC have yet to be published. Further longitudinal, multidisciplinary studies on patients with HAND and PCC and neuropathologic studies in comparison to controls are warranted to help elucidate the mechanisms of CNS dysfunction in both conditions.