The core-shell structured PS/SiO composite nanospheres were synthesized on the basis of a modified Stöber method. The mechanical properties of monodisperse nanospheres were characterized with nanoindentation on the basis of the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surface morphologies of PS/SiO composite nanospheres was scanned with the tapping mode of AFM, and the force-distance curves were measured with the contact mode of AFM. Different contact models were compared for the analyses of experimental data. The elastic moduli of PS/SiO composite nanosphere (4-40 GPa) and PS nanosphere (∼3.4 GPa) were obtained with the Hertz and Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) models, respectively, and the JKR model was proven to be more appropriate for calculating the elastic modulus of PS/SiO nanospheres. The elastic modulus of SiO shell gradually approached a constant value (∼46 GPa) with the increase of SiO shell thickness. A core-shell model was proposed for describing the relationship between PS/SiO composite nanosphere's elastic modulus and shell thickness. The mechanical properties of the composite nanospheres were reasonably explained on the basis of the growth mechanism of PS/SiO composite nanospheres, in particular the SiO shell's formation process. Available research data of PS/SiO composite nanospheres in this work can provide valuable guidance for their effective application in surface engineering, micro/nanomanufacturing, lubrication, and so on.

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MET has been suggested to have an intimate relationship with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and might be a promising therapeutic target. To date, relatively limited reports have been explored on MET mutational status in SCLC patients. To investigate the relationship between MET mutations and SCLC, 68 Chinese patients surgically treated for SCLC were enrolled. MET mutational analyses were performed in tumors, adjacent normal tissues as well as in lymph nodes with no metastasis nonadherent to tumor tissues using Sanger sequencing after PCR. The same mutation types were found in tumors, adjacent normal tissues as well as lymph nodes, including the only missense mutation N375S encoding semaphorin domain in exon 2 in 4 patients (5.9%), one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs35775721: C>T also encoding semaphorin domain as heterozygous in 10 cases (14.7%) and another SNP rs41736: C>T encoding tyrosine kinase domain in exon 20 existing in 49 cases (72.1%). In survival analysis, the wild genotype CC-carriers of rs41736 conferred a significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to CT + TT-carriers (HR 0.455, 95% CI 0.229-0.904; HR 0.226, 95% CI 0.099-0.515, for PFS and OS, respectively) in limited-stage SCLC patients. We also found that the lymph node status was significantly associated with OS, and the shorter OS was present in positive group (HR 2.187, 95% CI 1.170-4.088). In this study, rs41736 polymorphism of MET was first found to be associated with prognosis of limited-stage SCLC patients and could be considered as a prognostic marker for limited-stage SCLC.