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Non-centrosymmetric molecular crystals have a plethora of applications, such as piezoelectric transducers, energy storage and nonlinear optical materials owing to their unique structural order which is absent in other synthetic materials. As most crystals are brittle, their efficiency declines upon prolonged usage due to fatigue or catastrophic failure, limiting their utilities. Some natural substances, like bone, enamel, leaf and skin, function efficiently, last a life-time, thanks to their inherent self-healing nature. Therefore, incorporating self-healing ability in crystalline materials will greatly broaden their scope. Here, we report single crystals of a dibenzoate derivative, capable of self-healing within milliseconds via autonomous actuation. Systematic quantitative experiments reveal the limit of mechanical forces that the self-healing crystals can withstand. As a proof-of-concept, we also demonstrate that our self-healed crystals can retain their second harmonic generation (SHG) with high efficiency. Kinematic analysis of the actuation in our system also revealed its impressive performance parameters, and shows actuation response times in the millisecond range. There are many potential applications for non-centrosymmetric molecular crystals, but due to their typical brittle nature, efficiency of applications declines on prolonged use. Here, the authors report an autonomous self-healing ability of dibenzoate derivative single crystals that can retain its non-linear optical response.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most frequent motor neuron disease. Cytoplasmic fused in sarcoma (FUS) aggregates are pathological hallmarks of FUS-ALS. Proper shuttling between the nucleus and cytoplasm is essential for physiological cell function. However, the initial event in the pathophysiology of FUS-ALS remains enigmatic. Using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSCs)-derived motor neurons (MNs), we show that impairment of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-dependent DNA damage response (DDR) signaling due to mutations in the FUS nuclear localization sequence (NLS) induces additional cytoplasmic FUS mislocalization which in turn results in neurodegeneration and FUS aggregate formation. Our work suggests that a key pathophysiologic event in ALS is upstream of aggregate formation. Targeting DDR signaling could lead to novel therapeutic routes for ameliorating ALS. Abnormal cytoplasmic aggregates of FUS are a hallmark of some forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here, using neurons derived from patients with FUS-ALS, the authors demonstrate that impairment of PARP-dependent DNA damage signaling is an event that occurs upstream of neurodegeneration and cytoplasmic aggregate formation in FUS-ALS.

The textile branch traditionally uses a surplus of energy, consuming an enormous amount of water, and is responsible for the deterioration of the environment. New solutions are formally focused on a circular economy with an impetus on sustainable development and a world with zero waste. In reality, the aims of circular economy often do not coincide with sustainability issues, and sustainability is, in fact, narrowed to nature-created products (especially fibers) and not renewable resources. The main aims of this article are to critically discuss sustainability aspects of fiber development, textile design, production, use, and recycling or waste treatment. It is demonstrated that despite improvements in sustainability, comprehensive solutions need focused action of specialists from different disciplines with the same target, i.e., real sustainability for a future world. New machinery for the production of textiles without limitations to their thickness is one typical example of the approach to better sustainability. One of the key issues is the selection of sustainable fibers for future textile applications. The benefits and problems of replacing synthetic fibers with natural ones are discussed in detail. The recent techniques of textile waste treatment are presented, and problems with microplastics releasing from textiles are shown.

Upregulation of heat shock proteins (HSPs) is an approach to treatment of neurodegenerative disorders with impaired proteostasis. Many neurons, including motor neurons affected in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are relatively resistant to stress-induced upregulation of HSPs. This study demonstrated that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors enable the heat shock response in cultured spinal motor neurons, in a stress-dependent manner, and can improve the efficacy of HSP-inducing drugs in murine spinal cord cultures subjected to thermal or proteotoxic stress. The effect of particular HDAC inhibitors differed with the stress paradigm. The HDAC6 (class IIb) inhibitor, tubastatin A, acted as a co-inducer of Hsp70 (HSPA1A) expression with heat shock, but not with proteotoxic stress induced by expression of mutant SOD1 linked to familial ALS. Certain HDAC class I inhibitors (the pan inhibitor, SAHA, or the HDAC1/3 inhibitor, RGFP109) were HSP co-inducers comparable to the hydroxyamine arimoclomol in response to proteotoxic stress, but not thermal stress. Regardless, stress-induced Hsp70 expression could be enhanced by combining an HDAC inhibitor with either arimoclomol or with an HSP90 inhibitor that constitutively induced HSPs. HDAC inhibition failed to induce Hsp70 in motor neurons expressing ALS-linked mutant FUS, in which the heat shock response was suppressed; yet SAHA, RGFP109, and arimoclomol did reduce loss of nuclear FUS, a disease hallmark, and HDAC inhibition rescued the DNA repair response in iPSC-derived motor neurons carrying the FUSP525L mutation, pointing to multiple mechanisms of neuroprotection by both HDAC inhibiting drugs and arimoclomol.

Within the modern commercial printing press, a common problem is the ef-ficient management of the maintenance of different machines of newspaper printing press. If Effective Maintenance Management is applied, productivity of the machines can be increased by reducing breakdown time of the ma-chine. Productivity Management is an organizational framework that helps machines to improve productivity. Productivity of a machine is dependent on the failure probability which can be controlled by technical and management actions. The present investigation is established by the analysis of productivi-ty, effectiveness and failure probability on the basis of Pareto Analysis. Pareto chart is also developed to understand the actual scenario where highest prior-ity events are sequentially arranged. It has been observed that the web-offset printing machine has the highest productivity and effectiveness with less failure probability while the exposure unit has the highest failure probability having low productivity and effectiveness. Based on the reduction of proba-bility of failure to meet the acceptable criteria, further maintenance planning can be suggested. This approach confirms that productivity and effectivity of the machines of newspaper printing press can be increased by considering consequences of the machines and their corresponding failure assessments.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of neurons mainly in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Mutations (e.g., V337M, N297K) in the microtubule-associated protein TAU (MAPT) are responsible 5–20% of familial FTD cases and have been associated with defects in organelle trafficking that plays a critical role in the proper function of cells, including transport of essential molecules and degradation of waste products. Due to the critical role of TAU mutations in microtubule stabilization and organelle transportation, it is of great interest to study these molecular mechanisms to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Therefore, herein, we analyzed mitochondrial and lysosomal trafficking in disease-specific spinal motor neurons by using live cell imaging in undirected (uncompartmentalized) and directed (compartmentalized) cell culture systems. While V337M neurons only expressed 3R TAU, the N297K mutant neurons expressed both 3R and 4R TAU. Axonal trafficking was affected differentially in V337M and N297 MAPT mutated neurons. These findings suggest that the MAPT mutations V337M and N297K impaired axon physiology differentially, which highlights the need for mutation- and/or 3R/4R TAU-specific therapeutic approaches.

In this paper the different salient features of the old and new version of Indian paper currency notes have been studied and compared. The list of security features of Indian currencies have been mentioned and discussed. Various kinds of conventional methods that are used to detect authenticity and to recognize a note has been explained. It has been observed that each technique has its own objective and significance. There are many conventional tools that can be used to recognize different features of a note. To classify different techniques, the detection method comprises of two parts i.e., the first line detection method and the second line detection method. Physical dimensions of a paper note along with its thickness have pointed out a new parameter which is the diagonal of a genuine currency note that has been calculated to obtain a proposed standardization and each value differs from different denominations. The classification of different Indian banknotes giving emphasis on its characteristics, both salient and security features, dimensions and detection methods has been mentioned and briefly explained. For validation of the paper currencies two methods have been discussed emphasizing on fuzzy logic framework by taking into consideration a 3-point likert scale and another validation methodology using digital image processing

The inadequate practice of discharge of wastewater into receiving water bodies alters physicochemical parameters, which ultimately disturbs the livelihood of aquatic flora and fauna. The present study was focussed on the evaluation of the efficiencies of wastewater treatment plants based on different technologies through analysing the physicochemical parameters of wastewater collected from each treatment step including inlet, outlet and downstream Ganges River in Prayagraj, Varanasi and Kanpur (India) during winter and summer seasons. The removal efficiency of the MBBR technology of Prayagraj WWTP was observed to be better than that of the ASP and UASB technologies of Varanasi and Kanpur respectively for both seasons. Correlation analysis explained the strong negative correlation of pH and DO with nearly all the parameters of the study; whereas TDS, hardness, ammonia and BOD were highly correlated with each other in each city. The factor analysis suggested the best fit amongst the physicochemical parameters, with four factors elucidating 78.00% of the total variance, which further explained that DO, TDS, total alkalinity, nitrate, COD, and temperature were the major components for pollution. The results indicated that most of the samples were not appropriate for direct discharge into water bodies and irrigation purposes and thus needed further implementation of advanced technologies in their treatment procedure.

Little is known about the early pathogenic events by which mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This lack of mechanistic understanding is a major barrier to the development and evaluation of efficient therapies. Although protein aggregation is known to be involved, it is not understood how mutant SOD1 causes degeneration of motoneurons (MNs). Previous research has relied heavily on the overexpression of mutant SOD1, but the clinical relevance of SOD1 overexpression models remains questionable. We used a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) model of spinal MNs and three different endogenous ALS-associated SOD1 mutations (D90Ahom, R115Ghet or A4Vhet) to investigate early cellular disturbances in MNs. Although enhanced misfolding and aggregation of SOD1 was induced by proteasome inhibition, it was not affected by activation of the stress granule pathway. Interestingly, we identified loss of mitochondrial, but not lysosomal, integrity as the earliest common pathological phenotype, which preceded elevated levels of insoluble, aggregated SOD1. A super-elongated mitochondrial morphology with impaired inner mitochondrial membrane potential was a unifying feature in mutant SOD1 iPSC-derived MNs. Impaired mitochondrial integrity was most prominent in mutant D90Ahom MNs, whereas both soluble disordered and detergent-resistant misfolded SOD1 was more prominent in R115Ghet and A4Vhet mutant lines. Taking advantage of patient-specific models of SOD1-ALS in vitro, our data suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the first crucial steps in the pathogenic cascade that leads to SOD1-ALS and also highlights the need for individualized medical approaches for SOD1-ALS.