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In this paper, we investigate the phase behavior of a surfactant mixture comprising glyceryl stearate, potassium stearate, and stearic acid, in the presence of Carbopol, a commonly used thickener in personal care products. At low Carbopol concentrations (<0.03%), the surfactant mixture interacted with Carbopol electrostatically, increasing the degree of Carbopol swelling and, consequently, the overall viscosity. However, such an effect diminished as the Carbopol concentration was further increased. At a Carbopol concentration of 0.2%, two types of liquid crystalline surfactant structures, namely, multilamellar vesicles and lamellae, were observed between the swollen Carbopol domains. Although similar types of surfactant structures were present in a much more concentrated surfactant solution having a similar viscosity but without Carbopol, the lamellae in the presence of Carbopol were more ordered and with a larger dspacing. The increased ordering was probably induced by the interactions between the surfactants and Carbopol as the surfactants were confined between the swollen Carbopol domains.

This study proposes a chip-level integration scheme that uses Cu-Cu passivation bonding of metal alloys passivation with a low thermal budget ( $120~^{\circ }$ C) and short bonding duration (60 s) in an ambient atmosphere. This is achieved by employing an Ag-based alloy passivation bonding structure with three different thicknesses of passivation layer structures (3 nm, 30 nm, and 50 nm). The Ag-based alloy mitigates the abnormal grain growth of pure Ag, thus attaining superior grain morphology. With the Ag-based alloy passivation layer, better bonding quality, shorter bonding duration, and more stable electrical properties can be achieved. Furthermore, the enhancement of the Cu-Cu bonding with a thicker Ag-based alloy passivation layer was successfully verified. Consequently, the Ag-based alloy passivation structure offers a low thermal budget and a high throughput bonding process, making it suitable for chip-to-wafer integration.

Metastasis, the primary cause of death in lung cancer patients, is facilitated by cytoskeleton remodeling, which plays a crucial role in cancer cell migration and invasion. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms of intracellular trafficking proteins involved in cytoskeleton remodeling remain unclear. In this study, we have identified Rabenosyn-5 (Rbsn) as an inhibitor of filopodia formation and lung cancer metastasis. Mechanistically, Rbsn interacts with CDC42 and functions as a GTPase activating protein (GAP), thereby inhibiting CDC42 activity and subsequent filopodia formation. Furthermore, we have discovered that Akt phosphorylates Rbsn at the Thr253 site, and this phosphorylation negates the inhibitory effect of Rbsn on CDC42 activity. Additionally, our analysis reveals that Rbsn expression is significantly downregulated in lung cancer, and this decrease is associated with a worse prognosis. These findings provide strong evidence supporting the role of Rbsn in suppressing lung cancer progression through the inhibition of metastasis.

In this study, Wen et al. provide mechanistic insights into the regulation of the oncoprotein BOWL, which is marked for ubiquitin-mediated degradation by the E3 ligase HYD when complexed with the substrate adaptor LIN, highlighting a putative tumor-suppressive role for the HYD–LIN complex. Their findings define a previously unrecognized tumor suppressor pathway that links the epigenetic program to regulated protein degradation in tissue growth control and tumorigenesis.

Supramolecular polymerization or assembly of proteins or large macromolecular units by a homogeneous nucleation mechanism can be quite slow and require specific solution conditions. In nature, protein assembly is often regulated by molecules that modulate the electrostatic interactions of the protein subunits for various association strengths. The key to this regulation is the coupling of the assembly process with a reversible or irreversible chemical reaction that occurs within the constituent subunits. However, realizing this complex process by the rational design of synthetic molecules or macromolecules remains a challenge. Herein, we use a synthetic polypeptide-grafted comb macromolecule to demonstrate how the in situ modulation of interactions between the charged macromolecules affects their resulting supramolecular structures. The kinetics of structural formation was studied and can be described by a generalized model of nucleated polymerization containing secondary pathways. Basic thermodynamic analysis indicated the delicate role of the electrostatic interactions between the charged subunits in the reaction-induced assembly process. This approach may be applicable for assembling a variety of ionic soft matters that are amenable to chemical reactions in situ.