Anoplin is an amphipathic, α-helical bioactive peptide from wasp venom. In recent years, pharmaceutical and organic chemists discovered that anoplin and its derivatives showed multiple pharmacological activities in antibacterial, antitumor, antifungal, and antimalarial activities. Owing to the simple and unique structure and diverse biological activities, anoplin has attracted considerable research interests. This review highlights the advances in structural modification, biological activities, and the outlook of anoplin in order to provide a basis for new drug design and delivery.

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Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a chronic inflammatory reaction by immunoglobulin E (IgE) mediators after individual contact with allergens. It affects 10–40% of the world’s population and reduces the quality of life. Long-term symptoms of rhinitis can cause inflammation to spread and trigger asthma, which can harm human health. Herein, we develop a Smart PeptIde defeNse (SPIN) web technique, which in situ constructs a peptide web, trapping IgE against AR. Two candidate SPINs, SPIN-1 and SPIN-2, are designed with different IgE-binding sequences. The SPIN-1 or SPIN-2 is able to bind to IgE and transform from nanoparticles into entangled nanofibers. In turn, the web of SPIN-1 or SPIN-2 acts as a long-term trap of IgE to prevent the IgE from binding to mast cells. SPIN-1 or SPIN-2 (10 mg/kg) is able to treat AR model Balb/c mice with high efficiency and reduced symptoms of rhinitis and inflammatory factors, even better than a first-line clinical drug, cetirizine (10 mg/kg). For example, the amount of IL-4 released in the AR group (185.5 ± 6.8 pg/mL) is significantly reduced after the treatment with SPIN-1 (70.4 ± 14.1 pg/mL), SPIN-2 (86.0 ± 9.3 pg/mL), or cetirizine (112.8 ± 19.3 pg/mL). More importantly, compared with the cetirizine group (1 day), the SPIN-1 or SPIN-2 group shows long-term therapeutic effects (1 week). The SPIN web technique shows the great potential for blocking IgE binding to mast cells in vivo, attenuating AR or other allergic reactions.

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UNSTRUCTURED This is a corrigendum for MS 21099.

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The advent of nanotechnology has revitalized the classic field of theoretical and applied mechanics. Rivalling some of the basic scientific theories such as thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, mechanics has become essential for discovery and innovation in a broad and diverse set of scientific and technological fields. Indeed, in the multi-disciplinary world of nanoscience and nanotechnology, this is well-evident in this issue of International Journal of Applied Mechanics that contains a collection of nine articles on different topics of "nanomechanics", with a common root in mechanics and a common focus on theoretical and computational aspects. Needless to say, a complementary collection can be easily assembled for experimental nanomechanics.The articles in this issue collectively represent a sampling of current research efforts in the broad areas of theoretical and computational nanomechanics. Sheng and Li discuss novel molecular dynamics algorithms for accurately representing thermo-mechanical interactions at the nanoscale. Demkowicz and Hoagland elucidate the behaviour of Cu/Nb nanocomposites upon exposure to radiation by atomistic simulations using interatomic potentials derived from an embedded-atom method. Lu and Huang combine a nonlinear continuum mechanics framework and atomistic simulations to study the mechanical behaviour of single-atomic-layered graphene sheets. The next two articles further extend the multiscale mechanics modelling to incorporate ab initio features. Jun and his co-workers describe an action-derived ab initio molecular dynamics method that enables detailed electronic analysis of transition states as well as long time simulations of activated processes. Peng and her co-workers apply density-functional theory (DFT) based calculations to investigate the size and strain effects on the electronic properties of silicon nanowires. Apparently, the multiscale modelling approach is essential for the study of mechanics and mechanics-related phenomena at the nanoscale, which will necessarily continue to develop towards its full strength.The article by Machtay and Kukta develops an energetic model for selforganization of nanoscale islands in selective area epitaxy, an important technology for nanofabrication. The next article by Li and his co-workers derives an approximate formulation for the effective indentation modulus of elastically anisotropic film-on-substrate systems. Both of these articles may be broadly categorized as part 403 Int. J. Appl. Mechanics 2009.01:403-404. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND LIBRARY -SERIALS UNIT on 03/15/15. For personal use only.404 Foreword of surface nanomechanics, which is an active area by itself, including self assembly, nanoindentation, contact, adhesion, and friction.Wang and Chen present molecular dynamics simulations of bio-macromolecules and synthetic polymers, which represents another active area as mechanics of biomaterials and bio-molecules. Finally, the article by Vedantam and Mohanraj presents a simple lattice dy...