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An anisotropic glucose oxidase-polymer surfactant nanoconjugate is synthesized and shown to exhibit complex temperature-dependent phase behavior in the solvent-free state. At close to room temperature, the nanoconjugate crystallizes as a mesolamellar soft solid with an expanded interlayer spacing of ca. 12 nm and interchain correlation lengths consistent with alkyl tail-tail and PEO-PEO ordering. The soft solid displays a birefringent spherulitic texture and melts at 40 °C to produce a solvent-free liquid protein without loss of enzyme secondary structure. The nanoconjugate melt exhibits a birefringent dendritic texture below the conformation transition temperature (Tc) of glucose oxidase (58 °C) and retains interchain PEO-PEO ordering. Our results indicate that the shape anisotropy of the protein-polymer surfactant globular building block plays a key role in directing mesolamellar formation in the solvent-free solid and suggests that the microstructure observed in the solvent-free liquid protein below Tc is associated with restrictions in the intramolecular motions of the protein core of the nanoconjugate.

Traditional monopulse angle estimations are mainly based on phase comparison and amplitude comparison methods, which are commonly adopted in narrowband radars. In modern radar systems, wideband radars are becoming more and more important, while the angle estimation for wideband signals is little studied in previous works. As noise in wideband radars has larger bandwidth than narrowband radars, the challenge lies in the accumulation of energy from the high resolution range profile (HRRP) of monopulse. In wideband radars, linear frequency modulated (LFM) signals are frequently utilized. In this paper, we investigate the monopulse angle estimation problem for wideband LFM signals. To accumulate the energy of the received echo signals from different scatterers of a target, we propose utilizing a cross-correlation operation, which can achieve a good performance in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. In the proposed algorithm, the problem of angle estimation is converted to estimating the frequency of the cross-correlation function (CCF). Experimental results demonstrate the similar performance of the proposed algorithm compared with the traditional amplitude comparison method. It means that the proposed method for angle estimation can be adopted. When adopting the proposed method, future radars may only need wideband signals for both tracking and imaging, which can greatly increase the data rate and strengthen the capability of anti-jamming. More importantly, the estimated angle will not become ambiguous under an arbitrary angle, which can significantly extend the estimated angle range in wideband radars.

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The surface of haemoglobin (Hb) is chemically modified to produce molecular dispersions of discrete core-shell Hb-polymer surfactant bionanoconjugates in water and organic solvents. The hybrid nanoconstructs exhibit peroxidase-like catalytic activity with enhanced turnover rates compared with native Hb in water.

BackgroundHistone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are emerging as a new class of anti-cancer drugs that promote cancer cell apoptosis, and include suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA). The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of SAHA-induced apoptosis in human prostate cancer cell lines, DU145 and PC-3.Material/MethodsCell lines, DU145 and PC-3, were studied before and after treatment with SAHA. The effects of SAHA treatment on cell proliferation were studied using the MTT cell proliferation assay. Annexin-V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and propidium iodide (PI) staining were used to study the effects of SAHA treatment on cell apoptosis. Western blotting, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and short interfering (si)RNA assays were performed to study the effects of SAHA treatment on apoptotic and cell cycle proteins and the Akt/FOXO3a signaling pathway.ResultsTreatment with SAHA inhibited cell proliferation in human prostate cancer cell lines DU145 and PC-3 cells in a dose-dependent way. Cell cycle analysis and Annexin-V FITC/PI staining showed that treatment with SAHA resulted in G2/M cell cycle arrest and increased cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent way. Also, treatment with SAHA reduced the protein expression levels cyclin B and cyclin A2 and promoted the activation of FOXO3a by inhibiting Akt activation. Western blotting, the siRNA assay, and qPCR showed that FOXO3a, the Bcl-2 family of proteins, survivin, and FasL were involved in SAHA-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells grown in vitro.ConclusionsTreatment with SAHA promoted apoptosis via the Akt/FOXO3a signaling pathway in prostate cancer cells in vitro.

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Low dose of argatroban saline flushes is a feasible and safe alternative anticoagulation protocol in HD patients with high risk of bleeding.