Neuronal gene expression is tightly regulated in developing CNS. Here, we demonstrate the anti-neural function of phosphatase SCP1 (small C-terminal domain phosphatase 1) during development. We further show that the neuron-enriched microRNA miR-124 directly targets SCP1-3 untranslated region (UTR) to suppress SCP1 expression. In developing spinal cord, expression of miR-124 and SCP1 is complementary, and miR-124 antagonism phenocopies SCP1 overexpression and vice versa. In P19 cells, miR-124 suppresses SCP1 expression and induces neurogenesis, and SCP1 counteracts this proneural activity of miR-124. Our results suggest that, during CNS development, timely down-regulation of SCP1 is critical for inducing neurogenesis, and miR-124 contributes to this process at least in part by down-regulating SCP1 expression.Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

UV curable waterborne polyurethane/silica nanocomposites were designed and synthesized with functionalized silicas, where the functionalization was made with allyl isocyanate. The incorporated silica particles gave triple effects of multifunctional chemical cross-links, reinforcing fillers, and stress relaxation retarders. Consequently, functionalized silica incorporated into the polymer chains showed significantly improved mechanical and thermal properties than the simple addition of unmodified silica. Notably, over 99% shape fixity and shape recovery with minimum cyclic hysteresis were obtained for the repeated cycles at 1% loading of the modified silica

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