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Human-machine interfaces (HMIs) enable users to interact with machines, thus playing a significant role in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the metaverse. Conventional HMIs are based on bulky and rigid electronic devices, seriously limiting their ductility, damage reconfiguration, and multifunctionality. In terms of replacing conventional HMIs, artificial bionic skins with good ductility, self-reparation, and multisensory ability are promising candidates. Still, they in their present form require innovations in mechanical and sensory properties, especially damage recovery and environmental stability, which seriously affect the service life and result in tons of electric waste. Herein, we present a new type of artificial bionic skin with excellent mechanical performance (13,000% strain), high environmental stability (-80 to 80 °C), and multiple sensory properties toward strain, stress, temperature, solvent, and bioelectricity. Besides, this new type of artificial bionic skin also exhibits effective reconfiguration ability after damage and recyclability. The as-prepared artificial bionic skin was used as an interactive HMI to collect and distinguish the different sensory stimuli. The electronics assembled by HMI with artificial bionic skin can adhere compliantly on the human body for wireless motion capturing and sensing via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the Internet. With simple programming, complex human motions can be mimicked in real-time by robots.

In this work, the performance and mechanism of a Chinese traditional sucrose-modified rammed earth-lime were discussed in lab for its potential utilization in the restoration of rammed earth-lime a...

Water seepage is the primary cause of stone carvings corrosion in karst caverns, which is typically treated with cement-based grout intervention. In this paper, long-term monitoring (more than 1 1/2 years) was carried out in Qinglin cave and Yanxia cave in Hangzhou, China, to quantitatively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of ordinary Portland cement- and superfine cement-based grout intervention. Results showed that both materials were efficient in preventing water seepage, reducing it by half after the grout interventions. Grout intervention had obvious efficacy in blocking off the strong water seepage points, at the same time decreasing seepage differences among seepage points. Ion Chromatography results suggested that the concentrations of Ca2+, Cl− and SO42− in the seeped water in both caves increased after intervention, and the concentration of SO42− in the seeped water after superfine cement application in Qinglin cave was much more than that in the seeped water in Yanxia cave, where ordinary Portland cement was applied. Therefore, using superfine cement may bring more potential risks than ordinary Portland cement. However, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and conductivity analysis results presented that these ions seemly did not deposit on rock surfaces of the caves during the monitoring period.

Water seepage is the primary cause of corrosion of stone carvings in caverns. At present, grouting is commonly accepted by conservators as an effective technique to reduce leakage and help ...

Bone tumor is a rare heterogeneous malignancy. Osteosarcoma is the most common bone tumor with no apparent underlying pathogenesis, and its peak incidence often occurs during puberty. The intensive application of chemotherapy rarely alters the poor prognosis of the patients in advanced stage. Despite intensive chemotherapy in clinical practice, patients still suffer from the poor prognosis, or even progression of bone tumor. We identified integrin-associated protein (IAP) Cluster of Differentiation 47 (CD47) as a target for monoclonal antibody, and use anti-CD47 antibody to block its expression in bone tumors. CD47 was highly expressed in the bone tumor rats when comparing to the healthy rats. Likewise, Western blotting assay revealed a higher protein expression of CD47 in the bone tumor cells when compared to the normal osteoblasts. Further studies have shown the association between the mRNA expression of CD47 and the disordered bone tumors development and decreased rate of overall survival of diseased rats. In addition, blocking the CD47 monoclonal antibody has been shown to drive macrophages to engulf bone tumor cells in vitro and thus inhibiting tumor metastasis in rats. Taken together, the results of this study suggested that CD47 is a key regulator of bone tumor cell metastasis and that targeting inhibition of anti-CD47 may be a new immunotherapy for bone tumors. Keywords: Bone tumor, CD47, Monoclonal antibody, Immunotherapy

Ac2-26, a mimetic peptide of Annexin-A1, plays a vital role in the anti-inflammatory response mediated by astrocytes. In this study, we aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of Ac2-26-mediated anti-inflammatory effect. Specifically, we investigated the inhibitory effects of Ac2-26 on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced astrocyte migration and on pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines expressions, as well as one glutathione (GSH) reductase mRNA and total intracellular GSH levels in LPS-induced astrocytes. Additionally, we investigated whether mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signaling pathway were involved in this process. Finally, we evaluated the analgesic effect of Ac2-26 in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammatory pain model. Our results demonstrated that Ac2-26 inhibited LPS-induced astrocytes migration, reduced the production of pro-inflammatory mediators [tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1 (MIP-1α)] and upregulated GSH reductase mRNA and GSH levels in LPS-induced astrocytes in vitro. This process was mediated through the p38, JNK-MAPK signaling pathway, but not dependent on the NF-κB pathway. Furthermore, the p38 and JNK inhibitors mimicked the effects of Ac2-26, whereas a p38 and JNK activator anisomycin partially reversed its function. Finally, Ac2-26 treatment reduced CFA-induced activation of astrocytes and production of inflammatory mediators in the spinal cord. These results suggest that Ac2-26 attenuates pain by inhibiting astrocyte activation and the production of inflammatory mediators; thus, this work presents Ac2-26 as a potential drug to treat neuropathic pain.

Background Carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1A (CPT1A), the key regulator of fatty acid oxidation, contributes to tumor metastasis and therapeutic resistance. We aimed to identify its clinical significance as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prediction of breast cancer. Methods Western blot, ELISA and in silico analysis were used to confirm CPT1A levels in breast cancer cell lines, cell culture medium and breast cancer tissues. Four hundred thirty breast cancer patients, 200 patients with benign breast disease, and 400 healthy controls were enrolled and randomly divided into a training set and a test set with a 7:3 ratio. Training set was used to build diagnostic models and 10-fold cross validation was used to demonstrate the performance of the models. Then test set was aimed to validate the effectiveness of the diagnostic models. ELISA was conducted to detect individual serum CPT1A levels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated, and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of CPT1A as a biomarker in breast cancer diagnosis. CPT1A levels between post-operative and pre-operative samples were also compared. Results CPT1A was overexpressed in breast cancer tissues, cell lines and cell culture medium. Serum CPT1A levels were higher in breast cancer patients than in controls and were significantly associated with metastasis, TNM stage, histological grading and molecular subtype. CPT1A levels were decreased in post-operative samples compared with paired pre-operative samples. Moreover, CPT1A exhibited a higher efficacy in differentiating breast cancer patients from healthy controls (training set: area under the curve, AUC, 0.892, 95% CI, 0.872–0.920; test set, AUC, 0.904, 95% CI, 0.869–0.939) than did CA15–3, CEA, or CA125. Conclusion CPT1A is overexpressed in breast cancer and can be secreted out of breast cancer cell. Serum CPT1A is positively associated with breast cancer progression and could serve as an indicator for disease monitoring. Serum CPT1A displayed a remarkably high diagnostic efficiency for breast cancer and could be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Artificial intelligent skins hold the potential to revolutionize artificial intelligence, health monitoring, soft robotics, biomedicine, flexible, and wearable electronics. Present artificial skins can be characterized into electronic skins ( e-skins) that convert external stimuli into electrical signals and photonic skins ( p-skins) that convert deformations into intuitive optical feedback. Merging both electronic and photonic functions in a single skin is highly desirable, but challenging and remains yet unexplored. We report herein a brand-new type of artificial intelligent skin, an optoelectronic skin ( o-skin), which combines the advantages of both e-skins and p-skins in a single skin device based on one-dimensional photonic crystal-based hydrogels. Taking advantage of its anisotropic characteristics, the resulting o-skin can easily distinguish vector stimuli such as stress type and movement direction to meet the needs of multi-dimensional perception. Furthermore, the o-skin also demonstrates advanced functions such as full-color displays and intelligent response to the environment in the form of self-adaptive camouflage. This work represents a substantial advance in using the molecular engineering strategy to achieve artificial intelligent skins with multiple anisotropic responses that can be integrated on the skin of a soft body to endow superior functions, just like the natural organisms that inspire us.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Univariate logistic regression analysis of serum CPT1A and lipids in differentiating breast cancer and controls. Table S2. Formulas of logistic regression models built based on the data in the training set. Table S3. The reference ranges of serum tumor markers and lipids. Figure S1. Merged original blot showing CPT1A and β-Actin bands with protein markers in a panel of non-malignant cell lines and breast cancer cell lines. β-Actin was used as a control to confirm equal loading of protein. Figure S2. Subject inclusion and study profile. Figure S3. Serum CPT1A levels in different pathologic types of breast cancer. Serum CPT1A levels of breast cancer patients with cancer in situ, invasive ductal carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma, invasive papillary carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma and other types, in the training set (left) and test set (right), respectively. Statistical significance was determined by the Mann–Whitney U test. **p

Brown sugar and sticky rice were frequently used as organic additives in Chinese mortars. This study applied enzymatic spectrophotometric methods to identify sucrose and starch contents in traditional Chinese lime- and earth-based mortars. The focus was to understand and evaluate the qualitative detection capacity of enzymatic method in mortars, by first applying the method on a series of lab-prepared mortar specimens with specific amounts of brown sugar and sticky rice addition, then on historic mortar samples suspected to contain brown sugar and sticky rice. The potential contribution and limitations of enzymatic method in analysis of sucrose and starch in mortars was compared with other common available analytical methods. The results suggested that for lab-prepared brown sugar mortar specimens, enzymatic method was more sensitive and exclusive than chemical method, and particularly had higher detection capacity in lime mortars. For simulated mortars with sticky rice addition, enzymatic method showed no distinct detection capacity differences among the studied inorganic binders and comparing with chemical methods was more sensitive in earth-based mortars. Enzymatic analysis on historic mortar samples was able to distinguish some false-positive results from the chemical and FTIR analysis, which was then corroborated by SEM.

Purpose Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) exert important functions in the progression of cancers. Currently, we aim to investigate the potential roles of lncRNA ADAM Metallopeptidase with Thrombospondin Type 1 Motif 9 Antisense RNA 1 (ADAMTS9-AS1) in breast carcinoma. Materials and Methods The expressions of ADAMTS9-AS1 and miR-513a-5p in breast carcinoma tissues and cell lines were detected using qRT-PCR. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assays were used to assess the viability and invasive ability of breast cancer cells. The direct interaction between ADAMTS9-AS1 and miR-513a-5p was predicted using bioinformatics tools. The target of miR-513a-5p, ZFP36 Ring Finger Protein (ZFP36) was validated by luciferase assay. The expression of ZFP36 was measured using Western blot assay. Breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells growth in vivo was evaluated using xenograft tumor assay. Results ADAMTS9-AS1 was downregulated in breast cancer tissues as well as cell lines. Upregulation of ADAMTS9-AS1 suppressed the growth and invasiveness of breast carcinoma cells in vitro as well as inhibiting cellgrowth in vivo. Furthermore, ZFP36 was manifested as the target gene of miR-513a-5p and negatively modulated by ADAMTS9-AS1. In addition, overexpression of ADAMTS9-AS1 neutralized the promoting impact of miR-513a-5p on the aggressiveness of breast cancer cells. Conclusion In conclusion, lncRNA ADAMTS9-AS1 inhibited the aggressive phenotypes of breast carcinoma cells via sponging miR-513a-5p and regulating ZFP36.

Nowadays, vitamin D is known to have functions beyond bone formation, including inhibiting angiogenesis and promoting tumor apoptosis. CYP27B1 and group-specific component (GC), the main enzyme responsible for the degradation and transport of active vitamin D, play important role in many cancer-related cellular processes. Relationships between CYP27B1 and GC polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility have been widely investigated, whereas the results are inconsistent. We strictly searched EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, WanFang and CNKI electronic databases for relevant studies exploring the associations of GC (rs4588 and rs7041) and CYP27B1 (rs4646537, rs3782130) polymorphisms with cancer risks according to search strategy. Thirty-two studies published in 13 articles involving 15713 cases and 17304 controls were included. Our analyses suggested that rs4588 and rs7041 polymorphisms were significantly associated with overall cancer risk. Stratification analyses of ethnicity indicated that rs4588 polymorphism significantly increased cancer risk in Caucasians and Asians, while rs7041 polymorphism significantly increased cancer risk in Asians. When studies were stratified by cancer type, our results indicated that rs4588 significantly increased the risk of breast cancer and digestive system tumor, but not in prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, while rs7041 significantly increased the risk of non-small cell lung cancer. Above associations were noteworthy findings as evaluated by false-positive report probabilities (FPRPs). There were no associations of rs4646537 and rs3782130 with overall cancer risks. Associations between CYP27B1 and GC polymorphisms and cancer risks were examined, and additional large samples are necessary to validate our results.

Background: The liver-specific microRNA-122 (miR-122) has been demonstrated as a powerful and promising biomarker of hepatic diseases. However, the researches on the accuracy of miR122 detection in chronic viral hepatitis have been inconsistent, leading us to conduct this meta-analysis to systematically summarize the diagnostic value of circulating miR-122 in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated chronic viral hepatitis. Methods: A comprehensive literature search (updated to January 30, 2019) in PubMed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang, and CQVIP databases was performed to identify eligible studies. The sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC) were pooled to explore the diagnostic performance of circulating miR-122. Subgroup and threshold effect analysis were further carried out to explore the heterogeneity. Results: Overall, 15 studies were finally included in this meta-analysis according to the exclusion and inclusion criteria. The pooled estimates indicated a moderately high diagnostic accuracy for circulating miR-122, with a sensitivity of 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.86–0.95], a specificity of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.78–0.89), a PLR of 5.7 (95% CI, 4.7–8.1), a NLR of 0.1 (95% CI, 0.06–0.18), a DOR of 57 (95% CI 25-129), and an AUC of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.91–0.95). The subgroup analysis demonstrated that diagnostic accuracy was better for HCV-associated chronic viral hepatitis patients and non-Chinese compared with other subgroups. In addition, we found that serum might be a more promising matrix for detecting the expression of miR-122 than plasma. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that circulating miR-122 have a relatively high diagnostic value for chronic viral hepatitis detection, especially in the patients with HCV-associated chronic viral hepatitis. However, further large cohort studies are still required to confirm our findings.

Cement-based grouting materials can be applied to reinforce unsafe rocks of stone carvings that are attached to or carved out of cliffs. However, studies on the evaluation, that is, the pro...

Background: Carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1A (CPT1A) is the rate-limiting enzyme of fatty acid oxidation. It is overexpressed in advanced breast cancer and leads to poor survival. Here we aimed to examine the serum levels of CPT1A in a large-scale study and develop CPT1A as a biomarker for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods: An ELISA was conducted to detect serum CPT1A levels in 432 breast cancer patients, 200 patients with benign breast disease, and 400 healthy controls in a training set and a test set. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated, and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of CPT1A, CA15-3, CEA, and CA125 as biomarkers in breast cancer diagnosis and to develop novel diagnostic panels. Findings: Serum CPT1A levels were significantly higher in breast cancer patients than in patients with benign breast disease or in healthy controls. CPT1A levels were even more significantly elevated in serum from advanced or triple-negative breast cancer cases and were decreased in paired post-operative samples compared with pre-operative samples. CPT1A exhibited a higher efficacy in differentiating breast cancer patients from healthy controls (area under the curve, AUC: training set, 0.870; test set, 0.901) than did CA15-3, CEA, or CA125. The panel combining CPT1A with CA15-3, CEA, and CA125 was more effective in breast cancer diagnosis (AUC: training set, 0.908; test set, 0.909) than CPT1A alone. Interpretation: CPT1A can be a novel serum biomarker for the diagnosis and disease monitoring of breast cancer. Funding Statement: The work was supported by National Science Foundation of China (81802653), Research Fund of Hubei Province Public Health Bureau (WJ2015MB144) and Research Fund of Wuhan Public Health Bureau (WX15A12 and WX18Y11). Declaration of Interests: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee of the two hospitals. Written informed consent was obtained from every participant for the use of blood samples and medical records for research purposes.

Aerial lime-based mortars are recommended by many experts to restore the ancient buildings due to their great compatibility with ancient building materials. But their shortages (like long hardening time, relatively low mechanical strength, high water absorption capacity, etc.) limited their application in many fields. In this paper, the performance and mechanism of different simulated blood mortars are presented. The results showed that the mortar prepared by blood with lime had better binding strength, waterproof property, weather resistance and curing speed than common lime mortar. Through the conductivity, FT-IR, XRD, SEM, TG and curing speed test, it was found that the excellent performance of blood lime mortar was caused by the hydrolysis of blood proteins under alkaline condition and their special multilayer structure.

The brown sugar and egg-white are wildly used as lime mortar additives in southeast of China and other regions. In this paper, the mechanical properties testing and the composition and structure after curing were used to discuss the impact of these two additives on the performance of lime mortar and their mechanism. The results indicate sugar could reduce the water-lime ratio of lime mortar. When 2% sugar was added the water reduce effect could reach above 20% and effectively reduce the risk of cracking induced by mortar dry shrinkage. However, the excessive sugar content would affect the compressive strength and water resistance of mortar. Egg-white could improve the consistence, cohesiveness, durability and reduce the risk of cracking of lime mortar, while it has negative influence on the compressive strength and surface hardness of lime mortar. The main reason is the addition of egg-white make the mortar become much more compact and slow down the carbonation progress of lime mortar. But the egg-white gather on the surface on the mortar would influence the surface properties of mortar. Thus we suggest that the safe amount of these two additives is less than 4%.

Mortar is an important paste used to bind construction blocks (stone, brick, cinder blocks and etc.) together and fill the gaps between them. At the beginning of human civilization (12000-7000 B.C.), our ancestors constructed buildings primarily with earth and clay. Shortly after, lime was used in many parts of the world. During the Hellenistic period (323-146 B.C.), the romans invented pozzolanic mortar by adding volcanic ash or brick dust to lime plasters, thus enhanced the hydraulic properties of lime mortars. Later people began to put natural organic admixtures in mortars, such as proteins (e.g. animal blood, egg white, milk), saccharides (e.g. starch, cactus juice), oils (e.g. olive oil, egg yolk) and etc. Unlike pozzolanic mortar, which was hydraulic, traditional Chinese mortars were air-hardened, possibly due to the scarcity of volcanic ash. Chinese people began to calcine lime from the middle and late Neolithic Age (5000-2000 B.C.) and invented "tabia" (mixture of sand, lime and clay) in no later than Western Zhou dynasty (1046 -771 B.C.). Organic matters such as sticky rice was first discovered in a tomb of the Northern and Southern dynasty (420-589 A.D.). Natural organic admixtures in ancient Chinese mortars comprised mainly of proteins (e.g. pig blood, egg white), saccharides (e.g. sticky rice, juices of kiwifruit canes and camphor tree leaves, brown sugar), oils (e.g. resin, tung oil) and etc. Since the 18 century, the appearance of Portland Enzymatic Method for Detecting Sucrose in Ancient Chinese Mortars

Tung-oil-lime mortar is a special organic–inorganic binding material invented by the ancient Chinese people. It was widely used in wooden ship and special moisture-proof structures of ancient buildings due to its good sealing and waterproof performances. As a traditional binding material, tung-oil–lime mortar would have a bright applicative prospect in protection of cultural relics. In this paper, the formula, performances and mechanism of tung-oil–lime mortar are discussed. The results show that the mortar prepared by tung-oil with calcium hydroxide has better mechanical properties, water-resistivity and weather resistance than common lime mortar. The effective compositions of tung-oil–lime mortar were carboxylic acid calcium, curing tung-oil and calcium hydroxide. And these good performances of tung-oil–lime mortar come from the compact structure which is established through coordination reaction of Ca2+ from the Ca(OH)2 and the oxidation aggregation reaction of CaC double bonds in unsaturated fatty acid.

Green tea polyphenols are strong antioxidants and can reduce free radical damage. To investigate their neuroprotective potential, we induced oxidative damage in spinal cord neurons using hydrogen peroxide, and applied different concentrations (50-200 μg/mL) of green tea polyphenol to the cell medium for 24 hours. Measurements of superoxide dismutase activity, malondialdehyde content, and expression of apoptosis-related genes and proteins revealed that green tea polyphenol effectively alleviated oxidative stress. Our results indicate that green tea polyphenols play a protective role in spinal cord neurons under oxidative stress.

The Chinese people started to add organic matter to lime or ‘tabia’ no later than 1500 years ago, and thus created the traditional Chinese organic–inorganic mortar featured in this paper, which has been demonstrated by a great deal of archaeological evidence. According to the ancient literature records, the traditional Chinese organic–inorganic mortar was widely used for architectural purposes, such as rammed earthen buildings, finishing mortars, city walls, water conservancy projects and tombs. To verify the authenticity of the literature, four types of architecture were chosen from eastern China, and the obtained samples were analysed by chemical methods and FT–IR. The experimental results turned out to be consistent with the literature.

Muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) possess multipotent differentiation and self-renewal capacities; however, the effects and mechanism in neuron injury remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of MDSCs on neuron secondary injury, oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. An in vivo study showed the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score and number of neurons significantly increased after MDSCs’ transplantation in spinal cord injury (SCI) rats. An in vitro study demonstrated that MDSCs attenuated neuron apoptosis, and the expression of antioxidants was upregulated as well as the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax in the MNT (MDSCs cocultured with injured neurons) group compared with the NT (injured neurons) group. Both LC3II/LC3I andβ-catenin were enhanced in the MNT group, while XAV939 (aβ-catenin inhibitor) decreased the expression of nuclear erythroid-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and LC3II/LC3I. Moreover, MDSCs became NSE- (neuron-specific enolase-) positive neuron-like cells with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) treatment. The correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant relation between the level of BDNF and neuron injury. These findings suggest that MDSCs may protect the spinal cord from injury by inhibiting apoptosis and replacing injured neurons, and the increased BDNF andβ-catenin could contribute to MDSCs’ effects.

s Chu-nam putty is a special organic–inorganic hybrid material invented by ancient Chinese people. It was prepared by mixing tung-oil, lime and oakum (plant fibers like jute, ramie and so on) with excellent sealing performance. The invention and application of Chu-nam putty in wooden ship lead to improvement in sailing technology and ship safety issue. In this paper, the analytical results of a piece of chu-nam putty which was discovered in “Huaguang No.1” ancient ship are presented. The results show that the components of chu-nam putty are calcite, carboxylate and unsaturated esters by means of FT-IR, XRD and TGA/DSC. And the FT-IR and cross-section microscopic analysis confirm that the oakum was from jute. Comparing with the modeling putty samples it is found that the outstanding sealing performance of chu-nam putty comes from the coordination reaction of Ca 2+ from the Ca(OH) 2 and the oxidation aggregation reaction of C C double bonds in unsaturated fatty acid.

Sticky rice–lime mortar is one of the most important technological inventions in the Chinese architectural history. In this work, an experimental study on the application of sticky rice–lime mortar in conservation of the stone tower in the Xiangji Temple was performed by means of the property characterization, SEM, XRD and DSC-TG analysis. Our Results indicate that paper fiber is the most effective admixture to endure freezing–thawing cycles and increase the compressive strength of sticky rice–lime mortar, and the use of aluminum sulfate reduces the drying shrinkage values and increases the compressive strength because of the formation of ettringite in sticky rice–lime mortar. It is suggested that 6% aluminum sulfate or 3% paper fiber may be the appropriate admixture of sticky rice–lime mortar in conservation of cultural relics. Based on the results of laboratory experiment, the sticky rice–lime mortar with 3% paper fiber is selected as the grouting material for the conservation of the Xiangji Temple tower.

Muscle-derived stem cells were isolated from the skeletal muscle of Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats aged 3 days old. Cells at passage 5 were incubated in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum, 20 μg/L nerve growth factor, 20 μg/L basic fibroblast growth factor and 1% (v/v) penicillin for 6 days. Cells presented with long processes, similar to nerve cells. Connections were formed between cell processes. Immunocytochemical staining with neuron specific enolase verified that cells differentiated into neuron-like cells. Immunofluorescence cytochemistry and western blot results revealed that the expression of protein hairy enhancer of split-1 was significantly reduced. These results indicate that low expression of protein hairy enhancer of split-1 participates in the differentiation of muscle-derived stem cells into neuron-like cells.