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Protein crystallization could be promoted with a low concentration of impurities and inhibited with a high concentration of impurities, and this inhibition can be weakened by an audible sound.

RNA interference is a promising way to treat cancer and the construction of a stable drug delivery system is critically important for its application. Gelatin nanospheres (GNs) comprise a biodegradable drug vehicle with excellent biocompatibility, but there are limited studies on its delivery and role in the stabilization of miRNA and siRNA. Breast cancer is the most diagnosed type of female cancer worldwide. Abnormal miRNA expression is closely related to the occurrence and progression of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. In this study, miR-4458 was upregulated in ER+ breast cancer and could inhibit MCF-7 cell viability, colony formation, migration, and invasion. Collagen type XI alpha 1 (COL11A1) was identified as a directly interacting protein of miR-4458 and an important component of the extracellular matrix. High COL11A1 expression was positively correlated with poor prognosis, lower overall survival, disease-free survival, and a late tumor-node-metastasis stage. COL11A1 knockdown could inhibit MCF-7 cell migration and invasion. GNs were used to load a miR-4458 mimic or COL11A1 siRNA (si-COL11A1) to achieve sustained and controlled release in xenograft nude mice. Their tumor volume was decreased, tumor cell apoptosis was promoted, and hepatic metastasis was significantly inhibited. Moreover, the DDR2/SRC signaling pathway was inactivated after transfection with the miR-4458 mimic and si-COL11A1. In conclusion, GNs can be potentially used to deliver siRNA or miRNA, and miR-4458 and COL11A1 can be possible targets for ER+ breast cancer treatment.

Speech is one of the ways of human-computer interaction, and speech recognition technology is an important part of artificial intelligence. In recent years, the application of neural network technology in the field of speech recognition has developed rapidly, and it has become the mainstream acoustic modeling technology in the field of speech recognition. However, there is a difference between target speaker's voice and training data in the test conditions, which leads to the problem of model incompatibility. Therefore, the speaker adaptation (SA) method is to solve the mismatch problem caused by the speaker difference, and the research on the speaker adaptation method has become a popular direction in the field of speech recognition. Compared with the speaker adaptation method in the traditional speech recognition system, the self-adaptation in the speech recognition system using neural network has the characteristics of huge model parameters and relatively small amount of data. Therefore, the speaker adaptation method in the neural network-based speech recognition system becomes a challenge. Firstly, this paper reviews the development history of the speaker adaptation method and the various problems encountered in the research of the neural network-based speaker adaptation method. Secondly, the speaker adaptation method is divided into the speaker adaptation method based on feature domain and the speaker adaptation method based on model domain. It also introduces the corresponding principles and improvement methods, and finally points out the pro-blems that still exist in the speaker adaptation method in speech recognition and the future development direction.

The self-assembly of biomacromolecules is an extremely important process. It is potentially useful in the fields of life science and materials science. To carry out the study on the self-assembly of proteins, it is necessary to find out the suitable self-assembly conditions, which have always been a challenging task in practice. Inspired by the screening technique in the field of protein crystallization, we proposed using the same screening technique for seeking suitable protein self-assembly conditions. Based on this consideration, we selected 5 proteins (β-lactoglobulin, hemoglobin, pepsin, lysozyme, α-chymotrypsinogen (II) A) together with 5 screening kits (IndexTM, BML, Morpheus, JCSG, PEG/Ion ScreenTM) to investigate the performance of these crystallization screening techniques in order to discover new optimized conditions of protein self-assembly. The screens were all kept at 293 K for certain days, and were analyzed using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscope, fluorescence microscope, and atomic absorption spectroscope. The results demonstrated that the method of protein crystallization screening can be successfully applied in the screening of self-assembly conditions. This method is fast, high throughput, and easily implemented in an automated system, with a low protein consumption feature. These results suggested that such strategy can be applied to finding new conditions or forms in routine research of protein self-assembly. KEY POINTS: • Protein crystallization screening method is successfully applied in the screening of self-assembly conditions. • This screening method can be applied on various kinds of proteins and possess a feature of low protein consumption. • This screening method is fast, high throughput, and easily implemented in an automated system.

In recent years, with the rapidly increasing demand for pure protein products in various fields (biomedicines, biochemical reagents, food industries, etc.), the need for low-cost, high-quality prot...

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a ubiquitous process found in a variety of fields. It is of particular importance in biological sciences since it plays essential and vital roles in a number of physiological and pathological processes in biological systems. After LLPS, the dense droplets can grow in size via incorporating solutes from surrounding environment and in some cases coalescing with other droplets. Interestingly, the size of the dense droplets seems to have an upper limit but the mechanism remains to be explored. Since the droplet size can be essential for biological functioning, it is important to understand the size evolution of the phase separated droplets. Here we propose a physical mechanism with consideration of impurities on the surface of the dense liquid droplets. The theoretical predictions can be used to explain the observations on the size evolution. Based on the coalescence mechanism, we succeeded for the first time performing a challenging task, i.e., growing a single suspended protein crystal via merging phase-separated droplets in a fully non-contact manner. The mechanism observed may be considered as a basic model for researches in much broader fields involving phase separation, such as in biology, materials science, physics, chemistry, and meteorology.

The problem of global water pollution is becoming more and more severe, among which organic dyes and heavy metal ions are two typical types of the most common pollutants. The adsorption method for water purification and wastewater treatment is widely studied and applied. Hydrogel has unique advantages in the field of adsorption due to its three-dimensional porous structure. In this paper, a new type of self-healing hydrogels based on reversible covalent bond were prepared by mixing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and 2-aminophenylboronic acid modified polyacrylic acid (PAA-2APBA). In addition, the introduction of laponite nanoparticles into the hydrogel can increase both the mechanical strength and adsorption efficiency. This low-cost PAA-2APBA/PVA/laponite nano-composite hydrogel could efficiently remove the organic dyes and heavy metal ions in model waste water through simple immersion, which makes it have application prospects in the fields of both biomedical and environmental engineering.

Muscle atrophy usually occurs under mechanical unloading, which increases the risk of injury to reduce the functionality of the moving system, while there is still no effective therapy until now. It was found that miR-194 was significantly downregulated in a muscle atrophy model, and its target protein was the myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C). miR-194 could promote muscle differentiation and also inhibit ubiquitin ligases, thus miR-194 could be used as a nucleic acid drug to treat muscle atrophy, whereas miRNA was unstable in vivo, limiting its application as a therapeutic drug. A gelatin nanosphere (GN) delivery system was applied for the first time to load exogenous miRNA here. Exogenous miR-194 was loaded in GNs and injected into the muscle atrophy model. It demonstrated that the muscle fiber cross-sectional area, in situ muscle contractile properties, and myogenic markers were increased significantly after treatment. It proposed miR-194 loaded in GNs as an effective treatment for muscle atrophy by promoting muscle differentiation and inhibiting ubiquitin ligase activity. Moreover, the developed miRNA delivery system, taking advantage of its tunable composition, degradation rate, and capacity to load various drug molecules with high dosage, is considered a promising platform to achieve precise treatment of muscle atrophy-related diseases.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer. Some microRNAs (miRNAs) were abnormally expressed in TNBC, and they are closely related to the occurrence and progression of TNBC. Here, we found that miR-506 was significantly downregulated in TNBC and relatively lower miR-506 expression predicted a poorer prognosis. Moreover, we found that miR-506 could inhibit MDA-MB-231 cell viability, colony formation, migration, and invasion, and suppress the ERK/Fos oncogenic signaling pathway through upregulating its direct target protein proenkephalin (PENK). Therefore, miR-506 was proposed as a nucleic acid drug for TNBC therapy. However, miRNA is unstable in vivo, which limiting its application as a therapeutic drug via conventional oral or injected therapies. Here, a gelatin nanosphere (GN) delivery system was applied for the first time to load exogenous miRNA. Exogenous miR-506 mimic was loaded on GNs and injected into the in situ TNBC animal model, and the miR-506 could achieve sustained and controlled release. The results confirmed that overexpression of miR-506 and PENK in vivo through loading on GNs inhibited in situ triple-negative breast tumor growth and metastasis significantly in the xenograft model. Moreover, we indicated that the ERK/Fos signaling pathway was intensively inactivated after overexpression of miR-506 and PENK both in vitro and in vivo, which was further validated by the ERK1/2-specific inhibitor SCH772984. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that miR-506-loaded GNs have great potential in anti-TNBC aggressiveness therapy.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) include miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA. NcRNAs are involved in multiple biological processes, including chromatin remodeling, signal transduction, post-transcriptional modification, cell autophagy, carbohydrate metabolism, and cell cycle regulation. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is notorious for high invasiveness and metastasis, poor prognosis, and high mortality, and it is the most malignant breast cancer, while the effective targets for TNBC treatment are still lacking. NcRNAs act as oncogenes or suppressor genes, as well as promote or inhibit the occurrence and development of TNBC. Here, we reviewed some important miRNAs, lncRNAs, circRNAs, their target(s) and molecular mechanisms in TNBC. It is benefited to understand the occurrence and development of TNBC, further some ncRNAs might be potential targets for TNBC treatment.

Conventional diffusion bonding is normally conducted under constant bonding pressure, resulting in obvious deformation of the joined component, thereby destroying the internal structures. To address this problem, this study proposed a two-stage variable pressure diffusion bonding to fabricate the high-precision steel hollow structural component. In the first stage, a short-time higher bonding pressure was applied to significantly improve the local micro-plastic deformation of the surface asperity; in the second stage, a lower bonding pressure was used to continuously act on the bonding process. The macroscopic deformation, interfacial characteristics and shear strength were analyzed. Results showed that a well-joined hollow structural component was manufactured, in which a high interfacial bonding ratio of 98.2%, shear strength of 818 MPa close to that of the base material and limited macroscopic deformation of 4.9% were achieved.

Zinc is a biodegradable metal, which exhibits more moderate biodegradability than magnesium and iron, so that it has great application potential in the field of biomedical materials. Alloying of zinc and iron may lead to producing a new type of implant material Zn—Fe alloy, which might be able to meet the requirements for a moderate degradation rate. However, due to the huge difference in the melting point between zinc and iron, the preparation of Zn—Fe alloy is quite challenging and hence rarely reported. In this study, we show that Zn—Fe alloys can be successfully prepared by electrodeposition technology. The microstructures, composition, degradation properties and biocompatibility of the Zn—Fe alloys were systematically studied. The results showed that the content of iron in the alloys ranged from 0 to 8 wt%, depending on the concentration of Fe ions and the current density. In the alloys, the major's phases were η, δ and Г1, and they were mainly affected by the ion concentration in the electrolyte. In the in vitro immersion tests, the Zn—Fe alloy ZF2–1 showed the highest immersion corrosion rate, while ZF3–1 showed the highest electrochemical corrosion rate. Moreover, we found that the corrosion rates of the alloys were significantly higher than that of the pure Fe. In the in vivo experiments, we confirmed that the Zn—Fe alloy possessed good biocompatibility. These results demonstrate that the electrodeposition technology is a good method to prepare Zn—Fe alloys, and the Zn—Fe alloys prepared by this method are potentially promising materials for biomedical applications.

Protein crystallization is a process that is very sensitive to the physical environment. Audible sound is an environmental characteristic that can significantly affect the crystallization process. Previously, it was found that the crystallization result is frequency dependent, that is, the crystallization of protein under different sound frequencies yields different results. Here, we further investigate the effect of varying frequency (or a frequency program) on protein crystallization. Twelve different frequency programs and six proteins were used to test the effect of varying sound frequency on protein crystallization. The results showed that varying the audible sound frequency from high to low exhibited the most significant improvement in protein crystallization. Varying frequency linearly from 15 000 to 100 Hz in 12 h best promoted crystallization, with the average number of crystallization hits 36.5% higher than in the control. Crystal quality was improved with sound irradiation using STW2 program. O...

The aim of this study was to investigate the void self-shrinkage behavior and mechanism in the diffusion bonded 1Cr11Ni2W2MoV martensitic stainless steel joint. Two void morphologies, i.e., ellipse and long penny-shaped voids, were firstly manufactured by two kinds of prepared surfaces using diffusion bonding, and then heat treated at different temperatures. Results showed that for the ellipse voids the void self-shrinkage behavior hardly occurred at the lower heat treatment temperatures of 700 ℃ and 800 ℃, while it occurred to transform the ellipse voids into smaller round voids at the higher temperatures of 900 ℃ and 1000 ℃. For the penny-shaped voids, there was no obvious void self-shrinkage at the temperatures of 800 ℃ and 900 ℃, while the void self-shrinkage was greatly improved at the temperature of 1000 ℃. Joint shear strength could be significantly improved by the void self-shrinkage behavior. The void self-shrinkage mechanism was also analyzed, indicating that the void self-shrinkage behavior only occurred when the sum of internal driving force and external driving force was greater than the resistance for void self-shrinkage. The void self-shrinkage was mainly operated by diffusion of atoms, in which surface diffusion altered the void morphology, and grain boundary diffusion and volume diffusion reduced the void volume. Relative to ellipse voids, the void self-shrinkage of penny-shaped voids occurred at higher temperature due to the lack of surface diffusion.

Solid-state diffusion bonding is an advanced joining technique, which has been widely used to join similar or dissimilar materials. Generally, it is easy to observe the diffusion behavior during dissimilar bonding, but for similar bonding the diffusion behavior has yet been observed via experiments. In this study, the diffusion behavior at void tip was firstly observed during similar bonding of stainless steel. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy was used to examine the interface characteristic and diffusion behavior. The results showed that a diffusion region was discovered at void tip. Element concentrations of diffusion region were more than those of void region, but less than those of bonded region. This behavior indicated that the diffusion was ongoing at void tip, but the perfect bond has yet formed. The diffusion region was attributed to the interface diffusion from adjacent region to void tip due to the stress gradient along bonding interface. The mass accumulation at void tip transformed the sharp void tip into smooth one at the beginning of void shrinkage, and then resulted in shorter voids.

Large gradient high magnetic field (LG-HMF) is a powerful tool to study the effects of altered gravity on organisms. In our study, a platform for the long-term culture of aquatic organisms was designed based on a special superconducting magnet with an LG-HMF, which can provide three apparent gravity levels (µ g, 1 g, and 2 g), along with a control condition on the ground. Planarians, Dugesia japonica, were head-amputated and cultured for 5 days in a platform for head reconstruction. After planarian head regeneration, all samples were taken out from the superconducting magnet for a behavioral test under geomagnetic field and normal gravity conditions. To analyze differences among the four groups, four aspects of the planarians were considered, including head regeneration rate, phototaxis response, locomotor velocity, and righting behavior. Data showed that there was no significant difference in the planarian head regeneration rate under simulated altered gravity. According to statistical analysis of the behavioral test, all of the groups had normal functioning of the phototaxis response, while the planarians that underwent head reconstruction under the microgravity environment had significantly slower locomotor velocity and spent more time in righting behavior. Furthermore, histological staining and immunohistochemistry results helped us reveal that the locomotor system of planarians was affected by the simulated microgravity environment. We further demonstrated that the circular muscle of the planarians was weakened (hematoxylin and eosin staining), and the epithelial cilia of the planarians were reduced (anti-acetylated tubulin staining) under the simulated microgravity environment. Bioelectromagnetics. 2018;39:428-440. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this paper, a coupled map car-following model is extended to two-lane traffic system. Based on it, the numerical simulations for one stop and series stops situations are performed respectively under the open boundary condition. The evolution of traffic jam and corresponding energy consumption are then explored and compared each other. Additionally, the influences of the lane changing rule and control scheme on traffic jam and energy consumption are investigated separately. The results show that lane changing rule and control scheme are found not only to suppress the traffic jam but also to reduce the energy consumption. The control scheme exhibit better behavior than lane changing rule does in suppressing traffic jam and reducing energy consumption in two-lane traffic system. The outputs of these findings demonstrate the potential of the proposed model to be applicable to evaluate the control schemes for suppressing traffic jam and reducing energy consumption in real traffic condition.

Protein crystallization is of great importance because protein crystals have a number of different important applications, including large-scale purification of proteins, determination of protein structure, nanoparticle preparation, and theoretical studies of crystallization. An approach often used to efficiently crystallize proteins is the use of nucleants or seeds (small fragments of protein crystals) that can help increase the probability of protein crystallization. Due to the very positive effect that seeding has on protein crystallization, seeds are now widely accepted and utilized in practical protein crystallization. Here, we show that cross-linked protein crystals (CLPCs), which retain the crystal structure but are much more stable than non-cross-linked crystals, can also be used as a new type of seed for promoting protein crystallization. Seeding with CLPCs has effects on both the reproducibility and screening of protein crystals and could improve the optical perfection (well-defined facets) of p...

Protein crystallization screens are commonly used to find specific crystallization conditions. In practice, undesirable clear drops are often ignored. We hypothesize that clear drops may be potentially useful for finding the conditions leading to proteins with high solubility and monodispersity . Based on this idea, we first tested three model proteins and confirmed that improved monodispersity could be observed in the clear drops. Next, we used this strategy to achieve the maximum solubility and monodispersity of a new protein (RNA binding motif 3, RBM3). We suggest that this strategy is useful not only for high-throughput screening of optimal solubilization conditions but also for screening of biopharmaceutical formulations.

Finding new nucleants to promote protein crystallization is an important task, especially for purposes other than structural determination. Here, we investigated cyclodextrins and its derivative particles, as potential nucleants for protein crystallization. β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and its derivatives (including p-toluenesulfonyl-β-cyclodextrin (PTCD), polymer-β-cyclodextrin (PCD), Mono-(6-(1,6-hexamethylenediamine)-6-deoxy)-β-Cyclodextrin (MHCD) and Mercapto-β-cyclodextrin (MCD)) were used as nucleants. The experimental results confirmed that β-CD and its derivatives showed significantly positive effects, promoting protein crystallization and improving crystal quality. A larger number of protein molecules (including lysozyme, catalase, subtilisin A VIII, concanavalin A VI, α-chymotrypsinogen, proteinase K, cellulase, papain, glucose isomerase, hemoglobin and ribonuclease A XII) attached to the particles usually corresponded to a higher crystallization success rate. More detailed analysis showed that cyclode...

The objective of this study is to get insight into the influence of interfacial void morphology on the shear strength of similar diffusion bonded stainless steel hollow structural components. For the fixed temperature and pressure, three kinds of surfaces and various bonding times were applied to obtain the same interface bonding ratio but different interfacial void morphologies. The result showed that the bonding couples with smoother surfaces require less bonding time than those with rougher ones to achieve the same interface bonding ratio, and in this study the sound joint with the maximum shear strength of 761 MPa can be fabricated at 950 °C, 10 MPa and 15 min for the smoothest surface ground by 2000# SiC paper. At the low interface bonding ratio, void morphology has an obvious influence on the shear strength of joint, in which the large-size irregular voids produced by rougher surfaces significantly decrease the shear strength of joint. As the interface bonding ratio increases, the void morphology effect on shear strength of joint gradually weakens. When the high interface bonding ratio of 90% is achieved, the void morphology effect on the shear strength of joint is slight.

It is important to design insecticides having both low drug resistance and less undesirable toxicity for desert locust control. Specific GPCRs of Schistocerca gregaria, especially β-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor (SgOctβR), can be considered as its potential effective insecticide targets. However, either the unavailability of SgOctβR's structure or the inadequate capability of its sequence lead the development of insecticide for Schistocerca gregaria meets its plateau. To relax this difficulty, this paper develops a promising progressive structure simulation from SgOctβR's sequence, to its predicted structure of SgOctβR in vacuum, to its conformation as well as its complex with endogenous ligand octopamine in a solvent-membrane system. The combined approach of multiple sequence alignment, static structural characterization, and dynamic process of conformational change during binding octopamine reveal three important aspects. The first one is the characterization of SgOctβR's active pocket, including the attending secondary structure elements, its hydrophobic residues and nonpolar surface. The second one is the interaction with octopamine, especially the involved hydrogen bonds and an aromatic stacking of pi-pi interactions. The third one is the potential binding sites, including six highly conserved residues and one highly variable residue for locust insecticide design. This work is definitely helpful for the further structure-based drug design for efficient and eco-friendly insecticides, as well as site-directed mutagenesis biochemical research of SgOctβR.

We have proposed a rational strategy for selecting a suitable pH of protein solution based on protein biochemical properties. However, it is difficult to use this strategy for biochemical properties unknown proteins. In this paper, a simpler and faster pH buffer strategy was proposed. An additional pH-controlling buffer was added to crystallization droplet mixed with protein solution and commercial crystallization reagents to adjust its pH. The results revealed that protein crystallization success rates were enhanced by this strategy due to expansion of the pH screening space, which was closely related with protein solubility. Thus, the possibility of reaching supersaturation was increased by using this strategy.

We present a systematic quality comparison of protein crystals obtained with and without cross-linked protein crystal (CLPC) seeds. Four proteins were used to conduct the experiments, and the results showed that crystals obtained in the presence of CLPC seeds exhibited a better morphology. In addition, the X-ray diffraction data showed that the CLPC seeds method is a powerful tool to obtain high-quality protein crystals. Therefore, we recommend the use of CLPC seeds in preparing high-quality diffracting protein crystals.

Breast cancer (BC) and prostate cancer (PC) are the second most common malignant tumors in women and men in western countries, respectively. The risks of death are 14% for BC and 9% for PC. Abnormal estrogen and androgen levels are related to carcinogenesis of the breast and prostate. Estradiol stimulates cancer development in BC. The effect of estrogen on PC is concentration-dependent, and estrogen can regulate androgen production, further affecting PC. Estrogen can also increase the risk of androgen-induced PC. Androgen has dual effects on BC via different metabolic pathways, and the role of the androgen receptor (AR) in BC also depends on cell subtype and downstream target genes. Androgen and AR can stimulate both primary PC and castration-resistant PC. Understanding the mechanisms of the effects of estrogen and androgen on BC and PC may help us to improve curative BC and PC treatment strategies.

// Ren-Bin Zhou 1 , Xiao-Li Lu 1 , Chen-Yan Zhang 1 and Da-Chuan Yin 1 1 Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience & Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, PR China Correspondence to: Da-Chuan Yin, email: // Keywords : RNA binding protein 3, cancer, biomarker, neuroprotection Received : September 24, 2016 Accepted : January 10, 2017 Published : January 19, 2017 Abstract RNA binding motif 3 (RBM3) is a highly conserved cold-induced RNA binding protein that is transcriptionally up-regulated in response to harsh stresses. Featured as RNA binding protein, RBM3 is involved in mRNA biogenesis as well as stimulating protein synthesis, promoting proliferation and exerting anti-apoptotic functions. Nowadays, accumulating immunohistochemically studies have suggested RBM3 function as a proto-oncogene that is associated with tumor progression and metastasis in various cancers. Moreover, emerging evidences have also indicated that RBM3 is equally effective in neuroprotection. In the present review, we provide an overview of current knowledge concerning the role of RBM3 in various cancers and neuroprotection. Additionally, its potential roles as a promising diagnostic marker for cancer and a possible therapeutic target for neuro-related diseases are discussed.

The elucidation of protein structures by X-ray crystallography remains the most effectual method to provide accurate structural details at atomic resolution for rational drug design and other biotechnological research studies. Also, emerging applications of protein crystals as ordered nanostructure scaffolds for catalysis, imaging, and drug delivery are attracting much attention. However, the first step of these applications is obtaining high-quality crystals, which is still an obstacle. Successful crystallization requires two steps: nucleation and crystal growth, while the nucleation is a precondition for harvesting the crystal of interest. So controlling protein nucleation may be an alternative breakthrough for this bottleneck. It is well known that nucleants can induce protein crystallization and improve crystal quality, so investigation on the nucleants that can be universally used for any protein crystallization is ongoing. This manuscript reviews the advances that have been achieved using nucleants in protein crystallization and it is a suitable reference for practical crystallization.

Background: It has not been solved what kind of needle sensation might influence outcomes of acupuncture treatment. Effects of personality factors on the therapeutic effect of acupuncture have not been investigated. This study aimed to find the effects of the traits of personality on the objective outcome when different acupuncture techniques were used in treating patients with Bell's palsy. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of a prospective multicenter randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for Bell's palsy. Patients were randomly assigned to the de qi and control groups, respectively. The primary outcome was facial nerve function at month 6. The intensity of each needle sensation was rated by a visual analog scale. Psychosocial factors were assessed by the pretreatment mediator questionnaire; 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was used for assessing personality factors and digit cancellation test for assessing attention. Results: After 6 months, patients in the de qi group had better facial function (adjusted odds ratio [ OR ]: 4.16, 95% confidence interval [ CI ]: 2.23–7.78). Path analysis showed that intensity of needle sensation of fullness had direct effect on House-Brackmann (HB) score at month 6. In de qi group, the low HB score on day 1 ( OR : 0.13, 95% CI : 0.03–0.45) and the low Social Boldness score ( OR : 0.63, 95% CI : 0.41–0.97) in 16PF were associated with better facial function. In control group, low HB score on day 1 ( OR : 0.25, 95% CI : 0.13–0.50), low Vigilance score ( OR : 0.66, 95% CI : 0.50–0.88), and high Tension score ( OR : 1.41, 95% CI : 1.12–1.77) in 16PF were related to better facial function. Conclusions: The needle sensation of fullness could predict better facial function and personality traits might influence outcomes of acupuncture treatment. Both of them should be considered seriously in acupuncture treatment and research.

Prior studies on the influencing factors of mobile phone addiction have mainly focused on the individual factors and family-related environmental factors. Few studies, however, have investigated the roles of peer factors, especially the interactive roles of peer factors and individual factors in adolescent mobile phone addiction. The present study examined the relationship between peer victimization and mobile phone addiction and the moderating roles of self-compassion and gender. In two high schools, cluster random sampling method was used to choose two classes in each grade from grade 7 to grade 12. A sample of 1265 adolescents completed the anonymous self-report survey. Results showed that peer victimization was positively associated with mobile phone addiction. Self-compassion moderated the association between peer victimization and mobile phone addiction, with this association being weaker for adolescents with higher levels of self-compassion. Gender also moderated the association between peer victimization and mobile phone addiction, with this association being stronger in girls than in boys. Moreover, there were significant gender differences in the protective effect of self-compassion, in that the moderating effect of self-compassion was stronger in boys than in girls. The findings highlight the unique and interactive roles of peer victimization, self-compassion, and gender in predicting adolescent mobile phone addiction. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique has been proven to be a convenient and eco-friendly method to obtain multifunctional coatings. In this research we presented a hydrophilic and transparent coating on various types of substrates by layer-by-layer deposition of polyvinylamine (PVAm) and dopamine-modified hyaluronic acid (HA-DN). The successfully constructed multilayers on gold surface were monitored by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The coating significantly improved the hydrophilicity of glass, stainless steel, gold, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) surface as compared with the unmodified ones, which can reduce the water contact angle of the substrates by 30% to 45%. The growth of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was significantly inhibited on LbL-coated PVC, and 6 bilayers of coating can achieve nearly 100% suppression of bacterial growth. The coating was with no toxicity to mouse lymphocytes in polystyrene (PS) cell culture plate, while it significantly attenuated the viability of Michigan cancer foundation – 7 cells (MCF7) and human acute monocytic leukemia cell line (THP-1) in vitro. Therefore, this hydrophilic, transparent, antibacterial, biocompatible, and tumor-cell-suppressive coating would have broad potential in biomedical applications.

Mobile phone addiction has gained much research attention. Previous studies have primarily focused on college students, while there have been numerous calls for efforts to better understand mobile phone addiction in adolescents. Moreover, previous research has mainly focused on individual factors of mobile phone addiction; however, less is known about the effect of family factors and the underlying mechanisms. The present study tested the effect of family dysfunction on adolescent mobile phone addiction and explored how and when family dysfunction was associated with adolescent mobile phone addiction. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey regarding family dysfunction, mobile phone addiction, social anxiety, and mindfulness was administered to 1020 Chinese adolescents. Results showed that social anxiety partially mediated the association between family dysfunction and mobile phone addiction. In addition, both the direct association between family dysfunction and mobile phone addiction and the indirect association through social anxiety were moderated by mindfulness. These two links were weaker for adolescents with high mindfulness than for those with low mindfulness. The present study extends previous research by linking family dysfunction to adolescent mobile phone addiction and uncovering how and when family dysfunction is associated with adolescent mobile phone addiction. These results have important implications for the prevention and intervention of adolescent mobile phone addiction.

Protein drugs are attracting increasing attention. Eight of best-selling drugs in worldwide are proteins. Crystallization is an important protein purification method; however, it remains a bottleneck step. Heterogeneous nucleate is an effective method of enhancing protein crystallization. Cyclodextrin has been widely used in pharmaceutics, and our previous study showed that it is an effective heterogeneous nucleate for enhancing protein crystallization, and it may be widely used in purification of protein drugs. However, cyclodextrin must be added into the crystallization plate wells by hand, which is labor intensive and is not beneficial to automated crystallization screening. We grafted β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and its derivatives (i.e., p-toluenesulfonyl-β-cyclodextrin [PTCD], mono-(6-(1,6-hexamethylenediamine)-6-deoxy)-β-cyclodextrin [MHCD] and mercapto-β-cyclodextrin [MCD]) on crystallization plates and tested their effects on protein crystallization. Protein crystallization success rate was improved, particularly for the PTCD-grafted group. This is an easy method to facilitate protein crystallization and can be widely applied for automatic crystallization screening.

Protein crystallizes at specific conditions (correct precipitants, appropriate concentrations of protein and precipitants, suitable pH and correct temperature, etc.). If the conditions are not appropriate, crystallization will not occur. In protein crystallization screening, the target protein is mixed one by one with many chemical agents and then incubated at a set temperature. If the concentrations of the chemical agents and the target proteins are not in a range suitable for crystallization, the crystallization will not occur. To expand the concentration screening space, we propose in this paper a new design of protein crystallization plates for cross-diffusion microbatch and microbatch methods. The new plates have 96 units corresponding to the conditions of the commercial screening kits, and each unit contains four wells for holding the crystallization droplets. By dispensing crystallization droplets to the four wells at different volume ratios of protein to precipitant solutions, we can obtain four d...

The successful crystallization of proteins is important because their molecular three-dimensional structures can be obtained through X-ray diffraction when in their crystalline form. Investigation of the crystallization process is beneficial for this purpose. We have reported that protein crystallization is sensitive to audible sound, which is commonly present but is often ignored. Here we investigate the effect of audible sound parameters, especially frequency, on a protein crystallization. We show a significant facilitation of protein crystallization using 5000 Hz audible sound, possible mechanism was also tried to be clarified. Suitably controlled audible sound can be beneficial for promoting protein crystallization. Therefore, audible sound can be used as a simple tool to promote protein crystallization. In addition, the processing of other types of materials may also be affected by audible sound.

Environments with varying temperatures have been shown to beneficially increase the probability of obtaining protein crystals. Therefore, a cycling temperature strategy (CTS) has been proposed for protein crystallization screening. During the practical application of this strategy, it is necessary to know the effective temperature range that promotes crystallization to design a suitable temperature program. In this paper, the effects of different temperature ranges on lysozyme crystallization (or more specifically, nucleation) were investigated. The results show that a small periodic variation in the temperature range of as little as 0.4 K can have a significant effect on the crystallization success rate under some crystallization concentration conditions, confirming that crystallization of lysozyme is very sensitive to temperature variation. Because practical protein crystallization is always performed in an environment with slight temperature variations, the sensitivity of protein crystallization to temperature may provide an explanation for the poor reproducibility of protein crystallization. Further investigation of the CTS on lysozyme crystallization showed that a cycling temperature strategy exerts an effect on protein crystallization by altering the supersaturation caused by changes in temperature.

One well-known prerequisite for successful crystallization from solution is a supersaturated solution. To achieve supersaturation, many methods are known, among which solvent evaporation is a common approach. For protein crystallization, the most widely used method is vapor diffusion, in which solvent evaporation from the crystallization solution is the major reason for achieving supersaturation. The solvent evaporation rate may affect the actual concentration distribution in the crystallization solution, thereby influencing the crystallization process. To explore the effect of evaporation rate on protein crystallization, we used lysozyme as a model protein and studied the crystallization success rate at different evaporation conditions. Successful crystallization occurred only when both supersaturation and evaporation rates were in suitable ranges. This study demonstrates that both supersaturation level and the rate of reaching supersaturation (or solvent evaporation rate) are important for lysozyme crystallization. To increase the chance of obtaining crystals, manipulation of solvent evaporation rate is one choice. According to this assumption, we performed crystallization screening trials at different evaporation rates using three model proteins. The trials demonstrate that control of the evaporation rate during crystallization may provide more opportunities to obtain crystals.

We present a new method for the realization of high-throughput protein crystallization screening using an array of 96 capillaries aligned in a circle. In this method, each capillary represents a single crystallization condition, and all capillaries experience identical magnetic field conditions. After crystallization, the crystals in the capillary can be directly diffracted without harvesting. This method proved easy to perform and is applicable for use in magnetic fields and may be further extended for use in other circumstances, for example, under space microgravity conditions.

Cross-linked protein crystal technology, as either a protein stabilisation or enzyme immobilisation method, has garnered more attention recently. This method not only can retain the original activity of the protein molecule but can also significantly enhance the crystals' mechanical and chemical stability. This review presents the preparation and mechanism of cross-linked protein crystals using glutaraldehyde. The mechanical, chemical and thermal properties of the cross-linked protein crystals are also reviewed in detail. In addition, this paper summarises the applications of cross-linked protein crystals in the fields of materials science, biosensors, chromatographic analysis, oral delivery and protein crystal quality improvement. Finally, the limitations and perspectives on cross-linked protein crystals are presented.

Crystallisation of proteins is usually achieved with the help of chemical agents. Because there are few general guidelines in determining what agents will help to crystallise a specific protein, suitable crystallisation agents are often found via exhaustive trial-and-error tests by mixing many chemical agents (the collection of which is called a crystallisation screening kit) one-by-one with the protein. Currently, many commercially available crystallisation screening kits have been developed and utilised in practical crystallisation screen experiments. However, information regarding the design of new screening kits has yet to be expanded using a large amount of experimental data. Here, we show the step-by-step design processes of a polyethylene glycol-based screening kit. It was found that the screening performance could be improved by modifying the crystallisation screening kits according to the accumulated data (such as those in the Biological Macromolecule Crystallisation Database (BMCD)), the screening test results and existing knowledge. The screening kit designed in this paper can be used for practical protein crystallisation screen experiments and the method can be used in the design of other crystallisation screening kits.