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Janus fillers represent a combination of inorganic thermally conductive silver nanoparticles and organic polystyrene brushes on one entity but different sides. They are of practical importance for polymer composites with high thermal conductivity because of the improved dispersion and reduced interfacial heat resistance. Moreover, benefiting from the sheetlike structure and single-side deposition of inorganic particles, Janus fillers tend to align such that the heat pathway is constructed in the composite films, when fabricated by layer-by-layer doctor blading. As a result, the in-plane thermal conductivity of the polymer composite is as high as 4.57 W m -1 K -1 , with only 10 vol % Janus filler loading.

Glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) is one of the most important responders to disease-related stress. We assessed the association of the promoter polymorphisms of GRP78 with risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and GRP78 expression in a Chinese population. We examined 1007 patients undergoing diagnostic HCC and 810 unrelated healthy controls. Mechanisms by which the GRP78 promoter polymorphism modulates HCC risk and GRP78 levels were analyzed. The promoter haplotype and diplotype carrying rs391957 (-415bp) allele G and genotype GG was strongly associated with HCC risk. Luciferase reporter assays indicated that the promoter carrying rs391957 allele G (haplotype GCCd) showed increased activity in HepG2 cells and Hela cells. rs391957 was also shown to increase the affinity of the transcriptional activator Ets-2, the resistance to apoptosis, as well as cell instability in stressful microenvironment. Furthermore, compared with allele A, rs391957 allele G was associated with higher levels of GRP78 mRNA and protein in HCC tissues. These findings provided new insights into the pathogenesis of HCC and an unexpected effect of the interaction between rs391957 and Ets-2 on hepatocarcinogenesis, and especially supported the hypothesis that stress-related and evolutionarily conserved genetic variant(s) influencing transcriptional regulation could predict susceptibilities.