Xiaonan Huang

Stimuli-responsive nanomaterials are increasingly important in a variety of applications such as biosensing, molecular imaging, drug delivery and tissue engineering. For cancer detection, a paramount challenge still exists in the search for methods that can illuminate tumours universally regardless of their genotypes and phenotypes. Here we capitalized on the acidic, angiogenic tumour microenvironment to achieve the detection of tumour tissues in a wide variety of mouse cancer models. This was accomplished using ultra pH-sensitive fluorescent nanoprobes that have tunable, exponential fluorescence activation on encountering subtle, physiologically relevant pH transitions. These nanoprobes were silent in the circulation, and then strongly activated (>300-fold) in response to the neovasculature or to the low extracellular pH in tumours. Thus, we have established non-toxic, fluorescent nanoreporters that can nonlinearly amplify tumour microenvironmental signals, permitting the identification of tumour tissue independently of histological type or driver mutation, and detection of acute treatment responses much more rapidly than conventional imaging approaches. The imaging of tumours is challenging because of the wide range of different cancers. Now, the rapid detection of tumours, independent of type, is achieved using a nonlinear amplification strategy that employs ultrasensitive pH-responsive fluorescent nanoparticles that illuminate within tumour neovasculature or in response to the tumour’s acidic extracellular environment.

Switch it up: Tunable, pH-responsive nanoparticles can be selectively activated in different endocytic compartments. At high pH values, micelle formation (see picture, left) quenches fluorescence by Förster resonance energy transfer. The micelles disassemble at low pH values, leading to fluorescence emission. This nonlinear on/off nanoplatform offers many exciting opportunities in diagnostic imaging and drug-delivery applications.

Soft dielectric materials typically exhibit poor heat transfer properties due to the dynamics of phonon transport, which constrain thermal conductivity (k) to decrease monotonically with decreasing elastic modulus (E). This thermal-mechanical trade-off is limiting for wearable computing, soft robotics, and other emerging applications that require materials with both high thermal conductivity and low mechanical stiffness. Here, we overcome this constraint with an electrically insulating composite that exhibits an unprecedented combination of metal-like thermal conductivity, an elastic compliance similar to soft biological tissue (Young's modulus < 100 kPa), and the capability to undergo extreme deformations (>600% strain). By incorporating liquid metal (LM) microdroplets into a soft elastomer, we achieve a ∼25× increase in thermal conductivity (4.7 ± 0.2 W⋅m-1⋅K-1) over the base polymer (0.20 ± 0.01 W⋅m-1·K-1) under stress-free conditions and a ∼50× increase (9.8 ± 0.8 W⋅m-1·K-1) when strained. This exceptional combination of thermal and mechanical properties is enabled by a unique thermal-mechanical coupling that exploits the deformability of the LM inclusions to create thermally conductive pathways in situ. Moreover, these materials offer possibilities for passive heat exchange in stretchable electronics and bioinspired robotics, which we demonstrate through the rapid heat dissipation of an elastomer-mounted extreme high-power LED lamp and a swimming soft robot.

The emulsification properties of 14 hydrocolloid gums (propylene glycol alginate, gellan, carrageenan, pectin, methylcellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, gum arabic, locust bean gum, guar, xanthan, mustard, flaxseed, fenugreek, oat) were investigated. Gum dispersions were prepared in water (0.5%) and emulsified with 40% oil using a Polytron homogenizer. Emulsion stability was determined by centrifugation and storage time, surface and interfacial tension by Du Nouy ring, particle size by integrated light scattering and overall morphology by light microscopy. When compared to the other gums in this study, fenugreek produced a very stable emulsion. Fenugreek was more efficient than other gums in lowering the interfacial free energy, its emulsion was composed of very small oil droplets (70%<1 μm) and under the light microscope appeared as uniform droplets with a narrow size distribution.

Tunable, ultra-pH responsive fluorescent nanoparticles with multichromatic emissions are highly valuable in a variety of biological studies, such as endocytic trafficking, endosome/lysosome maturation, and pH regulation in subcellular organelles. Small differences (e.g., <1 pH unit) and yet finely regulated physiological pH inside different endocytic compartments present a huge challenge to the design of such a system. Herein, we report a general strategy to produce pH-tunable, highly activatable multicolored fluorescent nanoparticles using commonly available pH-insensitive dyes with emission wavelengths from green to near IR range. The primary driving force of fluorescence activation between the ON (unimer) and OFF (micelle) states is the pH-induced micellization. Among three possible photochemical mechanisms, homo Förster resonance energy transfer (homoFRET)-enhanced decay was found to be the most facile strategy to render ultra-pH response over the H-dimer and photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) mechanisms. Based on this insight, we selected several fluorophores with small Stoke shifts (<40 nm) and established a panel of multicolored nanoparticles with wide emission range (500–820 nm) and different pH transitions. Each nanoparticle maintained the sharp pH response (ON/OFF < 0.25 pH unit) with corresponding pH transition point at pH 5.2, 6.4, 6.9, and 7.2. Incubation of a mixture of multicolored nanoparticles with human H2009 lung cancer cells demonstrated sequential activation of the nanoparticles inside endocytic compartments directly correlating with their pH transitions. This multicolored, pH-tunable nanoplatform offers exciting opportunities for the study of many important cell physiological processes, such as pH regulation and endocytic trafficking of subcellular organelles.

The endosomal barrier is a major bottleneck for the effective intracellular delivery of siRNA by nonviral nanocarriers. Here, we report a novel amphotericin B (AmB)-loaded, dual pH-responsive micelleplex platform for siRNA delivery. Micelles were self-assembled from poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-block-poly(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMA-b-PDPA) diblock copolymers. At pH 7.4, AmB was loaded into the hydrophobic PDPA core, and siRNA was complexed with a positively charged PDMA shell to form the micelleplexes. After cellular uptake, the PDMA-b-PDPA/siRNA micelleplexes dissociated in early endosomes to release AmB. Live cell imaging studies demonstrated that released AmB significantly increased the ability of siRNA to overcome the endosomal barrier. Transfection studies showed that AmB-loaded micelleplexes resulted in significant increase in luciferase (Luc) knockdown efficiency over the AmB-free control. The enhanced Luc knockdown efficiency was abolished by bafilomycin A1, a vacuolar ATPase inhibitor that inhibits the acidification of the endocytic organelles. These data support the central hypothesis that membrane poration by AmB and increased endosomal swelling and membrane tension by a “proton sponge” polymer provided a synergistic strategy to disrupt endosomes for improved intracellular delivery of siRNA.

Diets containing partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) expose the human body to trans fatty acids, thus endangering cardiovascular health. Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) is a promising alternative of PHOs. This work attempted to construct stable Pickering HIPEs by engineering interface architecture through manipulating the interfacial, self-assembly, and packing behavior of zein particles using the interaction between protein and pectin. Partially wettable zein/pectin hybrid particles (ZPHPs) with three-phase contact angles ranging from 84° to 87° were developed successfully. ZPHPs were irreversibly anchored at the oil–water interface, resulting in robust and ordered interfacial structure, evidenced by the combination of LB-SEM and CLSM. This situation helped to hold a percolating 3D oil droplet network, which facilitated the formation of Pickering HIPEs with viscoelasticity, excellent thixotropy (>91.0%), and storage stability. Curcumin in HIPEs was well protected from UV-induced degradation and endowed HIPEs with ideal oxidant stability. Fabricated Pickering HIPEs possess a charming application prospect in foods and the pharmaceutical industry.

Pickering High Internal Phase Emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by food-grade particles have received considerable attention. In this work, we first demonstrated the use of chitosan-caseinophosphopeptides (CS-CPP) nanocomplexes as particulate emulsifiers to stabilize the interface of natural oils and water. For this purpose, we developed the CS-CPP nanocomplexes through electrostatic interactions and demonstrated their application in the formation of stable Pickering HIPEs. The microstructures, e.g., interfacial frameworks, of the CS-CPP nanocomplexes partition between the continuous phase and interfacial region, and the states of the droplets of Pickering HIPEs were visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and an optical microscope. The compressed droplets in Pickering HIPEs formed a percolating 3D-network framework that endowed emulsions with viscoelastic, self-supporting, and ideal thixotropic features. In addition, the gelatinous state of Pickering HIPEs combined with robust and compact CS-CPP nanocomplexes formed an interfacial layer around the droplets, thus depressing the oxidation of linseed oil. The contents of primary and secondary oxidation products in HIPEs were lower than that in bulk oil and emulsions stabilized by surfactants. An in vitro gastrointestinal (GI) model was constructed to characterize the lipid oxidation, lipid digestion and curcumin bioaccessibility of Pickering HIPEs. Interestingly, this route enhanced the bioaccessibility of curcumin from 20.49% (bulk oil) to 49.21% (Pickering HIPEs). This work offers a facile method to develop Pickering HIPEs by food-grade particles, which help to fill the gap between the performance of CS-CPP nanocomplexes-stabilized Pickering HIPEs and potential applications as oral delivery systems of nutraceuticals.

Abstract Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are popular as actuators for soft bioinspired robots because they are naturally compliant, have high work density, and can be operated using miniaturized on‐board electronics for power and control. However, SMA actuators typically exhibit limited bandwidth due to the long duration of time required for the alloy to cool down and return to its natural shape and compliance following electrical actuation. This challenge is addressed by constructing SMA‐based actuators out of thermally conductive elastomers and examining the influence of electrical current and actuation frequency on blocking force, bending amplitude, and operating temperature. The actuator is composed of a U‐shape SMA wire that is sandwiched between layers of stretched and unstretched thermal elastomer. Based on the studies, the ability is demonstrated to create a highly dynamic soft actuator that weighs 3.7 g, generates a force of ≈0.2 N, bends with curvature change of ≈60 m −1 in 0.15 s, and can be activated with a frequency above 0.3 Hz with a pair of miniature 3.7 V lithium–polymer batteries. Together, these properties allow the actuator to be used as an “artificial muscle” for a variety of tethered and untethered soft robotic systems capable of fast dynamic locomotion.

Untethered soft robots using compliant lightweight actuators are capable of dynamic locomotion at biologically relevant speeds.

Imaging all the people: Using ionizable diblock copolymers a series of nanoprobes encoded with different 19F reporters for specific pH transitions is prepared for use in MRI. The pH response of the nanoprobes is extremely sharp (ΔpHON/OFF≈0.25 pH), and results from the disassembly of polymer micelles (see scheme). A collection of three nanoprobes provides the proof of concept and allows for a qualitative measurement of environmental pH values. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

To develop healable hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties is still a challenge topic. In this study, a novel class of physically crosslinked polyacrylamide based nanocomposite hydrogels reinforced with cellulose nanofibers (CNF) were fabricated using radical polymerization, followed by further strengthening through ferric ions via strong ionic coordination interactions between Fe3+ and carboxyls on CNF surfaces. Then the obtained gels were characterized by FTIR, tensile and compressive measurements as well as healing experiments. The increase of CNF amount or Fe3+ concentration generated positive effect on the improvement of hydrogel mechanics, demonstrating facilely modulatable mechanical properties through simply changing CNF dosages in formulations and/or Fe3+ concentrations in posttreatment. The obtained nanocomposite hydrogels show remarkable mechanical properties with high stiffness and toughness, quick recovery and healing abilities owing to the distinctive roles of dual physical crosslinks. This work provides a promising view for designing novel high strength hydrogels with fully physical crosslinks.

A new and tri-responsive fluorescent Schiff base probe (DBAB) has been designed and developed for the recognition of iron(<sc>iii</sc>) ions (Fe³⁺), iron(<sc>ii</sc>) ions (Fe²⁺) and copper(<sc>ii</sc>) ions (Cu²⁺) simultaneously.

Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) are normally highly concentrated emulsions stabilized by colloidal particles with a minimum internal phase volume fraction of 0.74. They have received considerable attention in many fields, including pharmaceuticals, tissue engineering, foods, and personal care products. The aim of this perspective is to update the current knowledge on the field of protein-based Pickering HIPEs, emphasizing those aspects that need to be explored and clarified. Research progress in constructing HIPEs by protein-type colloid particles and promising research trends in basic research and potential applications were highlighted. Promising studies in this field include (1) clarifying bioavailability and evolution of activity of active ingredients in Pickering HIPEs by oral administration, (2) constructing a Pickering interfacial catalysis platform using protein colloidal particles, and (3) expanding the emerging applications of Pickering HIPEs in fields, such as partially hydrogenated oil replacers, probiotic encapsulation, and the template for porous materials.

Abstract Soft robots are primarily composed of soft materials that can allow for mechanically robust maneuvers that are not typically possible with conventional rigid robotic systems. However, owing to the current limitations in simulation, design and control of soft robots often involve a painstaking trial. With the ultimate goal of a computational framework for soft robotic engineering, here we introduce a numerical simulation tool for limbed soft robots that draws inspiration from discrete differential geometry based simulation of slender structures. The simulation incorporates an implicit treatment of the elasticity of the limbs, inelastic collision between a soft body and rigid surface, and unilateral contact and Coulombic friction with an uneven surface. The computational efficiency of the numerical method enables it to run faster than real-time on a desktop processor. Our experiments and simulations show quantitative agreement and indicate the potential role of predictive simulations for soft robot design.

Food-grade high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs) unify the stability of Pickering emulsions and the advantages of detergent-based high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs), making them attractive as nutritional products. However, as oral delivery systems, HIPPEs are usually prepared in the form of o/w emulsions, which are suitable mainly for oleophilic active ingredients and may suffer from leakage during gastric digestion. To better protect and deliver hydrophilic cargo molecules, we developed a HIPPE-based w/o/w double emulsion system. Zein nanoparticles and soybean lecithin are found to have a synergistic effect in stabilization — using both natural emulsifiers together results in the formation of w/o/w double emulsions with improved stability, which is further confirmed by the interfacial tension and rheology of zein- and/or lecithin-laden oil-water interfaces. A combination of zein nanoparticles and lecithin achieves the fastest interfacial tension decrease, indicating an improved interfacial activity. Besides, lecithin contributes to the strong surface elasticity of the interfacial films, which makes the formed emulsions even stabler. Simulated digestion experiments suggest that the inner aqueous droplets can be strongly protected from gastric fluids. This edible HIPPE with double emulsion morphology provides new ideas for designing healthy foods for nutrients delivery.

We review the recent progress of electrically-powered artificial muscles and soft machines using shape memory alloy and liquid crystal elastomer.

Abstract Matching the rich multimodality of natural organisms, i.e., the ability to transition between crawling and swimming, walking and jumping, etc., represents a grand challenge in the fields of soft and bio‐inspired robotics. Here, a multimodal soft robot locomotion using highly compact and dynamic bistable soft actuators is achieved. These actuators are composed of a prestretched membrane sandwiched between two 3D printed frames with embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) coils. The actuator can swiftly transform between two oppositely curved states and generate a force of 0.3 N through a snap‐through instability that is triggered after 0.2 s of electrical activation with an input power of 21.1 ± 0.32 W (i.e., electrical energy input of 4.22 ± 0.06 J . The consistency and robustness of the snap‐through actuator response is experimentally validated through cyclical testing (580 cycles). The compact and fast‐responding properties of the soft bistable actuator allow it to be used as an artificial muscle for shape‐reconfigurable soft robots capable of multiple modes of SMA‐powered locomotion. This is demonstrated by creating three soft robots, including a reconfigurable amphibious robot that can walk on land and swim in water, a jumping robot (multimodal crawler) that can crawl and jump, and a caterpillar‐inspired rolling robot that can crawl and roll.

Environmental-friendly epoxy (EP) composite coatings are regarded as distinguished candidates for preventing metal corrosion. In this paper, we synthesized a novel GO-PDA-MoS2/EP nanocomposite coating system by modifying dopamine (PDA) functionalized graphene oxide (GO) with MoS2. Here, the effect of different MoS2 additions on the corrosion resistant properties of coatings was investigated by altering the ratio of MoS2 to GO-PDA via electrochemical measurements, long-duration immersion experiments, and water contact angle tests. The results indicated that 0.3 wt.% MoS2 can substantially enhance the interfacial compatibility between EP and GO-PDA and the GO-PDA-MoS2-0.3 wt.%/EP coating presented optimum corrosion resistant properties. Specifically, the impedance modulus (|Z|) of the GO-PDA-MoS2-0.3 wt.%/EP coating still reached 2.36 × 107 Ω·cm2 after 30 days immersed, which was two orders of magnitude higher than pure EP coatings. This work demonstrates a novel economical and environmental scheme that MoS2 can be employed to enhance the corrosion resistant properties and improve the interfacial interactions of EP coatings.

An orthoester-containing monomer, trans-N-(2-ethoxy-1,3-dioxan-5-yl)acrylamide (tNEA), was synthesized. Atom transfer radical polymerization of tNEA using a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) macroinitiator afforded three acid-labile thermoresponsive block copolymers: PEG-b-PtNEA27, PEG-b-PtNEA56, and PEG-b-PtNEA73. These block copolymers are water-soluble at low temperatures (<13 °C). Thermally induced phase transition behaviors, including the critical aggregation temperatures (CATs), of these polymers were investigated by light scattering and 1H NMR. The results indicated that the longer the PtNEA chain length, the lower the CAT. Upon heating above the CATs, all the three polymers underwent a phase transition and formed polymeric micelles or micelle-like nanoparticles with PEG as the shell and PtNEA block as the core. Both the sizes and morphologies of the micelles were found to be affected by the heating rate and the salt concentration in the buffers. The micelles, formed through a fast heating procedure in the buffer with a relatively high salt concentration, have a smaller size and a more compacted structure. pH-dependent destabilization of the polymeric micelles prepared from PEG-b-PtNEA73 was studied by using light scattering and Nile Red fluorescence. The results demonstrated that hydrophobic Nile Red could be loaded in the micelles that were stable at pH 7.4, but destabilized in mildly acidic media. The dissociation of the micelles and the subsequent release of Nile Red were induced by the acid-triggered hydrolysis of the orthoester groups, which was proved by the 1H NMR spectra.

A series of well-defined thermoresponsive diblock copolymers (PEO45-b-PtNEAn, n = 22, 44, 63, 91, 172) were prepared by the atom transfer radical polymerization of trans-N-(2-ethoxy-1,3-dioxan-5-yl) acrylamide (tNEA) using a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO45) macroinitiator. All copolymers are water-soluble at low temperature, but upon quickly heating to 37 °C, laser light scattering (LLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations indicate that these copolymers self-assemble into aggregates with different morphologies depending on the chain length of PtNEA and the polymer concentration; the morphologies gradually evolved from spherical solid nanoparticles to a polymersome as the degree of polymerization (“n”) of PtNEA block increased from 22 to 172, with the formation of clusters with rod-like structure at the intermediate PtNEA length. Both the spherical nanoparticle and the polymersome are stable at physiological pH but susceptible to the mildly acidic medium. Acid-triggered hydrolysis behaviors of the aggregates were investigated by LLS, Nile red fluorescence, TEM, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The results revealed that the spherical nanoparticles formed from PEO45-b-PtNEA44 dissociated faster than the polymersomes of PEO45-b-PtNEA172, and both aggregates showed an enhanced hydrolysis under acidic conditions. Both the spherical nanoparticle and polymersome are able to efficiently load the hydrophobic doxorubicin (DOX), and water-soluble fluorescein isothiocyanate-lysozyme (FITC-Lys) can be conveniently encapsulated into the polymersome without using any organic solvent. Moreover, FITC-Lys and DOX could be coloaded in the polymersome. The drugs loaded either in the polymersome or in the spherical nanoparticle could be released by acid triggering. Finally, the DOX-loaded assemblies display concentration-dependent cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells, while the copolymers themselves are nontoxic.

In recent years, multifunctional nanoparticles have attracted much research interest in various biomedical applications such as biosensors, diagnosis, and drug delivery systems.

Modeling soft robots that move on surfaces is challenging from a variety of perspectives. A recent formulation by Bergou et al. of a rod theory that exploits new developments in discrete differential geometry offers an attractive, numerically efficient avenue to help overcome some of these challenges. Their formulation is an example of a discrete elastic rod theory. In this article, we consider a planar version of Bergou et al.'s theory and, with the help of recent works on Lagrange's equations of motion for constrained systems of particles, show how it can be used to model soft robots that are composed of segments of soft material folded and bonded together. We then use our formulation to examine the dynamics of a caterpillar-inspired soft robot that is actuated using shape memory alloys and exploits stick-slip friction to achieve locomotion. After developing and implementing procedures to prescribe the parameters for components of the soft robot, we compare our calibrated model to the experimental behavior of the caterpillar-inspired soft robot.

Intravitreal injection is one of the major administration routes for the treatment of posterior ocular diseases. Intravitreal therapeutics usually suffer from unsatisfactory efficacy owing to fast clearance from the vitreous humour and insufficient distribution into the retina. Engineered nanoparticles have been applied for specific tissue targeting over the past decades. In this review, we summarize the most recent research utilizing intravitreal nanoparticles to deliver therapeutics to the retina. Herein, the achievement made in preclinical research and challenges remaining in the field are highlighted. Parameters including size, charge, stability and choice of modified ligand on intraocular distribution and transport are also systematically discussed based on a proposed pharmacokinetic model. We provide insights for rational design principles for intravitreal nanoparticles for targeted retinal delivery.

Protein-based Pickering emulsions have received considerable attention as nutraceutical vehicles. However, the oral bioavailability of nutraceuticals encapsulated in Pickering emulsions was not well established. In this work, a simulated gastrointestinal tract/Caco-2 cell culture model was applied to investigate the oral bioavailability of quercetin encapsulated in zein-based Pickering emulsions with quercetin in zein particles as the control. Pickering emulsions with shell (ZCP-QE) and core quercetin (ZCPE-Q) were constructed, and quercetin bioaccessibility, cell uptake and secretion, and the overall bioavailability were evaluated and compared. The overall oral bioavailability of quercetin was increased from 2.71% (bulk oil) to 38.18% (ZCPs-Q) and 18.97% (ZCPE-Q), particularly reached 41.22% for ZCP-QE. This work took new insights into the contributions of bioaccessibility and absorption (cell uptake plus secretion) to the overall oral bioavailability of quercetin. A schematic representation is proposed to relate the types of colloidal nanostructures in the digesta to the uptake, cell absorption, and overall oral bioavailability of quercetin. This study provided an attractive basis for identifying effective strategies to improve the oral bioavailability of hydrophobic nutraceuticals.

Chemo-enzymatic cascade processes are invaluable due to their ability to rapidly construct high-value products from available feedstock chemicals in a one-pot relay manner. However, they have proven to be challenging because of the mutual inactivation of both catalysts. A conceptually novel strategy based on Pickering interfacial catalysis (PIC) is proposed here to address this challenge. This study aimed to construct a protein-stabilized Pickering system for biphasic cascade catalysis, enabled by phosphorylated zein nanoparticles (ZCPOPs) immobilized in gold nanoparticles (Au NCs). Ultra-small Au NCs, 1-2 nm in diameter, were integrated into ZCPOPs at room temperature. Then, the as-synthesized ZCPOPs-Au NCs were used to stabilize the oil-in-water (o/w) Pickering emulsion. Besides their excellent catalytic activity and recycling ability in a variety of oil phases, ZCPOPs-Au NCs possess unpredictable catalytic activity and exhibit mimicking properties of horseradish peroxidase. Particularly, the cascade reaction is well achieved using a metal catalyst and a biocatalyst at the oil-water interface. The result showed that such a combination of chemo- and biocatalysis improved the catalytic yield more than two times compared with that of sole metal catalysis. This study opened a new avenue to design nanomaterials using the combination of chemo- and biocatalysis in a Pickering emulsion system for multistep syntheses.

Three N-substituted methyl ethylenediamine derivatives, tetramethylethylenediamine (TDA), pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PTA), and hexamethyltriethylenetetramine (HTA) were prepared for the corrosion inhibition of 20# steel in 1 M HCl solution. Their corrosion inhibition properties were investigated using weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, and surface analysis techniques. Quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to analyze the molecular structure-activity relationship of corrosion inhibitors. The results indicated that all three methyl ethylenediamine derivatives exhibited excellent inhibition properties. The order of inhibition efficiency of these inhibitors was TDA < PTA < HTA. Furthermore, all three inhibitors act as mixed-type inhibitors and mainly inhibited the cathodic reaction. The adsorption mechanism of corrosion inhibitors follows the Langmuir isotherm and proceeds by physisorption and chemisorption. The results of quantum chemical calculations and MD simulations effectively support the experimental results. The excellent corrosion inhibition property is attributed to the interaction between tertiary amine groups and Fe, which effectively inhibits corrosion.

Umgebungseinfluss: Anpassbare, pH-responsive Nanopartikel können selektiv in endozytischen Kompartimenten aktiviert werden. Bei hohen pH-Werten bewirkt die Micellenbildung (links im Bild) eine Fluoreszenzlöschung durch Förster-Energietransfer. Bei niedrigen pH-Werten lösen sich die Micellen auf, was zu Fluoreszenz führt. Diese nichtlineare An/Aus-Nanoplattform sollte für die diagnostische Bildgebung und den Wirkstofftransport interessant sein. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

ABSTRACT A hyper‐crosslinked resin chemically modified with thiourea (TM‐HPS) was synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for the removal of heavy metal ions (Pb 2+ , Cd 2+ , and Cu 2+ ) from aqueous solutions. The structural characterization results showed that a few thiourea groups were grafted on the surface of the resin with a big BET surface area and a large number of narrow micropores. Various experimental conditions such as pH, contact time, temperature, and initial metal concentration of the three heavy metal ions onto TM‐HPS were investigated systematically. The results indicated that the prepared resin was effective for the removal of the heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. The isotherm data could be better fitted by Langmuir model, yielding maximum adsorption capacities of 689.65, 432.90, and 290.69 mg/g for Pd 2+ , Cd 2+ , and Cu 2+ , respectively. And the adsorption kinetics of the three metal ions followed the pseudo‐second‐order equation. FTIR and XPS analysis of TM‐HPS before and after adsorption further revealed that the adsorption mechanism could be a synergistic effect between functional groups and metal ions and electrostatic attraction, which may provide a new insight into the design of highly effective adsorbents and their potential technological applications for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45568.

The adsorption of solid particles at fluid interfaces to stabilize emulsions or foams has been known for more than a century. Over the past 10 years, the focus of the Pickering emulsion and foam has gradually shifted toward food applications with thanks to facile developments of a huge variety of food-grade particle stabilizers. Wheat gliadins are characterized by their amphiphilic characteristic with distinct hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains, and by their abundant source and the facile and environmentally friendly production process. Taken together, these properties enable them to be attractive building blocks for creating functional colloidal nano- and microstructures with emerging applications as delivery vehicles of bioactive ingredients, and in engineering interface nanoarchitecture and bulk phases. The unique properties of gliadin enable it to engineer Pickering emulsions into advanced porous materials with emerging application without chemical crosslinking and polymerization. Herein, we present an overview on the state-of-the-art of the generation of the nanostructures from gliadin and their performance in stabilizing Pickering emulsions and/or foams and propose future perspectives for research and applications. We demonstrate the gaps in the ongoing understanding and suggest new direction on the scalable production of gliadin-based nanostructures for constructing Pickering emulsions and their templated-porous materials, highlighting the points that need to be further explored.

Abstract Purpose of review In this review, we briefly summarize the numerical methods commonly used for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of soft robotic systems. The underlying mechanical principles as well as the geometrical treatment tailored for soft robots are introduced with particular emphasis on one-dimensional models. Additionally, the review encompasses three-dimensional frameworks, available simulation packages, and various types of interaction models, shedding light on the design, actuation, motion control, and internal and external forces of soft robots. Recent findings Reduced-order models can offer high efficiency in characterizing nonlinear deformations, allowing convenient tailoring based on specific structural and material configurations. For pursuing high simulation accuracy and detailed mechanics, the finite element method proves to be a valuable tool through numerous off-the-shelf platforms. Furthermore, machine learning has emerged as a promising tool to effectively address the challenges within the mechanics community. Summary A wide range of kinematic and dynamic numerical models is available for simulating the behaviors of soft robots, offering exceptional adaptability to different geometries and structures based on existing modeling theories and numerical solution algorithms. However, the trade-off between computational complexity and simulation accuracy remains a challenge in achieving fast, accurate, and robust control of soft robots in complex environments.

Abstract Novel acid‐labile, thermoresponsive methacrylamide‐based (co)polymers with pendent ortho ester groups were prepared by free radical polymerization of N ‐(2‐methoxy‐1,3‐dioxan‐5‐yl) methacrylamide (NMM) and N ‐(2‐ethoxy‐1,3‐dioxan‐5‐yl)methacrylamide (NEM). These polymers are both thermoresponsive and acid‐sensitive in aqueous solution, which was proved by transmittance measurements, fluorescence, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The LCSTs of the (co)polymers were shifted to higher temperature by increasing the content of the more hydrophilic NMM units. All of these polymers can be hydrolyzed under acidic condition and the hydrolysis rate increased with the decrease in the pH value. magnified image

Like their natural mammalian and reptilian counterparts, legged soft robots require robust walking dynamics and untethered functionality in order to swiftly maneuver through unstructured environments. Progress in this domain requires careful selection of soft limb actuators and integration of power and control electronics into a soft robotics platform capable of biologically relevant locomotion speeds without dependency on external hardware. We demonstrate this with an untethered soft palm-sized, 25 g soft electrically actuated quadruped, which is capable of crawling at a maximum speed of 0.56 body length per second (3.2 cm/s), and making 90° turns in two complete gait cycles (~5 s). The robot is composed of a flexible printed circuit board and electrically powered soft limbs that contain shape memory alloy (SMA) wires inserted between pre-stretched layers of a soft, thermally conductive elastomer. Its versatile mobility and robust dynamics are demonstrated by its ability to walk on a variety of surfaces-including inclines, rocky, and granular surfaces, and steps that are over half the robot height-and maintain continuous forward locomotion through confined space or after being dropped from an elevated height. In addition to these locomotion studies, we perform an experimental study on the blocking force of a single actuator to provide independent support for the feasibility of untethered soft robot walking with SMA-based actuation.

Water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions have numerous applications in many industries like foods, pharmaceuticals, in particular biphasic bio-catalysis. However, most of them are stabilized by surfactants or synthetic particles, which lead to limited uses in foods. Here, a W/O type Pickering emulsion was successfully prepared firstly by ordered ethyl cellulose-chitosan complex particles (ECCPs) and used for a recyclable biocatalytic micro-reactor. The performances of emulsions with different ethyl cellulose-chitosan ratios, water phase fraction and particle concentration were discussed. The type of emulsions could be shifted from W/O to W/O/W and O/W as water fraction increased. Interestingly, a recyclable bio-catalytic microreactor platform was constructed using such novel W/O emulsions, and the activity of lipase was significantly increased by encapsulating it into Pickering emulsions, and was 6.3-times higher than that of free lipase in biphasic system. In particular, the encapsulated lipase remained stable and could be recycled over 15 times without the loss of activity.

In this paper, we developed a silk fibroin nanofiber (SF) hydrogel system complexed with upconversion nanoparticles and nano-graphene oxide (SF/UCNP@NGO) for upconversion luminescence imaging and photothermal therapy.

In this paper, the effect of surface charge of intravitreal lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) on their intraocular accumulation and distribution was quantitatively and systematically studied. The retinal distribution of LNPs delivering model drug (siRNA) with optimal surface charge was visualized as well. LNPs and siRNA-loaded LNPs (siLNPs) were prepared with ethanol-injection method. C57BL/6 Mice with the age of 6-8 weeks were used for the animal experiments. Quantitative accumulation in the eye and respective intraocular distribution of the intravitreally injected LNPs with different surface charge were examined after predesignated time points. The fluorescence intensity of the fluorescent labeled siRNA was also quantified based on the confocal microscope images. The release of siRNA from siLNPs was studied in mimicked vitreous environment at 37 °C with the presence of 50% serum protein. We successfully prepared six types of LNPs had relatively uniform size around 70 nm and varied in zeta potential ranging from -30 mV to +50 mV. Negative, neutral and slightly positive charged LNPs were cleared much faster than strongly positive charged LNPs from the mice's eyes. After 6 h, LNPs with zeta potential of +35 mV had highest ratio of retinal to vitreous accumulation and penetrated through the entire layer of the retina. The siLNPs could successfully deliver the siRNA to the ganglion cells and inner plexiform layer of the retina. After 24 h, majority of LNPs and siLNPs were cleared, suggesting that the LNPs with pegylated surface in the absence of any targeting ligand were not internalized by retinal cells. The mechanism of how the surface charge of nanoparticles affects their intraocular retention and distribution was intensively discussed. The results suggested that intravitreally injected LNPs with optimal surface charge around +35 mV can distribute and penetrate the retina, which could be further modified as promising nanocarriers for retinal delivery.

RNAi therapy has been developed and explored for treating retinal conditions since last decades. The progression of retinal diseases including the age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma is associated with the malfunction of specific retinal cells. Therefore, to deliver therapeutic RNAi to selective retinal tissues with desired gene downregulation is crucial for the treatment of retinal diseases via RNAi therapy. Lipid-based nanoparticles are potent delivery vectors for RNAi therapeutics to achieve high gene silencing efficiency. The surface charge has been demonstrated to affect the intraocular behaviors and retinal distribution of intravitreally administered lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which could subsequently affect the gene knockdown efficiency in specific retinal layers. Here, we evaluated three charged LNPs for their ability to deliver siRNA and facilitate gene downregulation both in vitro and in vivo. LNPs with different surface charges ranging from neutral to positive (5–34 mV) were successfully formulated. All types of charged LNPs managed gene knockdown in both mammalian cell line and primary neurons. At 48 h post intravitreal injection, neutral LNPs (6.2 mV) and mildly positive LNPs (15.9 mV) mediated limited retinal gene suppression (<10%) and the more positive LNPs (31.2 mV) led to ∼25% gene suppression in the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) layer. No gene silencing in the retinal pigmented epithelium layer was facilitated by any LNPs independent of the charges. In summary, this study has shown that positive LNPs with an optimized charge managed specific gene downregulation in the RGC layer. These RNAi carriers hold potential for the treatment of RGC-associated retinal diseases.

Zein colloidal particles, which have generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status, have been routinely used in formulations of oral nutraceuticals but not in skin care products. Herein, we constructed for the first time zein-based topical vehicles to address skin photoaging. To this end, we fabricated a new type of eco-friendly nanoparticles by co-assembling zein with hyaluronic acid (HA), a cell-specific molecule, to encapsulate hydrophobic tetrahydrocurcumin (THC) with an aim to improve its cutaneous bioavailability. Impressively, the prepared nanoparticles could increase the solubility of THC in water by 72.84 times, and were stable at pH 4–10. In particular, the topical delivery systems were effective in UVB-induced cell and animal photoaging models, and were able to restore the accumulation of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) and inflammatory factors to the normal levels at the selected conditions. In addition, the biotransformation of THC in HaCaT cells was observed and clarified. This strategy may open up new promising avenues for developing innovative nanocosmetics containing anti-photoaging ingredient.

Two acid-labile, thermoresponsive poly(methacrylamide)s with the pendant cyclic orthoester moieties of trans and cis configurations, PtNEM and PcNEM, were synthesized via free radical polymerization of the corresponding trans and cis isomers of N-(2-ethoxy-1,3-dioxan-5-yl)methacrylamide (NEM). The thermally induced phase transition/separation behaviors of both polymers as well as the aqueous solution properties below and above their phase transition temperatures were investigated by means of turbidimetry, DSC, 1H NMR, microscopy, fluorescence probe, and dynamic light scattering. Both PtNEM and PcNEM showed aggregation behaviors below their respective LCSTs, and the former formed more hydrophobic microdomains which had greater capability to solvate pyrene molecules compared with PcNEM. These two polymers exhibited thermally induced sensitive and reversible phase transitions in aqueous solution. PtNEM showed a little lower cloud point but much greater phase transition enthalpy compared to PcNEM. The results of DSC, 1H NMR, and microscopy measurements revealed that PcNEM exhibited a liquid−liquid phase separation while PtNEM likely underwent a liquid−solid transition. Furthermore, the pH-dependent hydrolyses of both polymers were studied by the 1H NMR and turbidimetric approaches. The results indicated that both PtNEM and PcNEM showed acid-triggered hydrolysis behaviors, and the hydrolysis products were affected by the configurations of the pendant cyclic groups. On the basis of these results, we can conclude that the stereochemical structures of the pendant cyclic orthoester groups in these poly(methacrylamide)s greatly affect their aqueous solution properties as well as their hydrolysis behaviors.

A series of poly(meth)acrylamide derivatives with pendent six-member cyclic orthoester groups, i.e., poly(N-(2-alkyloxy-1,3-dioxan-5-yl)methacrylamide)s and poly(N-(2-alkyloxy-1,3-dioxan-5-yl)acrylamide)s, have been synthesized and characterized. The difference between these polymers lies in the type of alkyl substitutes (R3), the stereochemical structures of the pendent cyclic orthoester groups (trans vs cis), and the main chain structures (polymethacrylamide vs polyacrylamide). Aqueous solution properties and pH-dependent hydrolysis behaviors of these polymers were studied by various methods including turbidimetry, fluorescence probe, DSC, 1H NMR, microscopy, and light scattering. The results show that these polymers except PtNPM can be dissolved in water at low temperature, and all of the water-soluble polymers are thermosensitive with different lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) and susceptible to hydrolysis in mildly acidic conditions. Both thermosensitive properties and acid-triggered hydrolysis behaviors of the polymers are closely related to the polymer structures. In general, polymethacrylamides display higher cloud points (CPs) than polyacrylamides. In addition, the polymers with larger R3 and trans configuration have a lower CP and greater magnitude of dehydration and exhibit a liquid−solid phase transition, while those with smaller R3 and cis configuration have a smaller magnitude of dehydration and undergo a liquid−liquid phase separation. In addition, a two-stage transition process is observed for the polymers with R3 being methyl. 1H NMR results reveal that the acid-triggered hydrolysis rate of the pendent orthoesters increases as R3 changed from methyl to isopropyl, and the configuration changed from cis to trans. The synergetic effect of R3 and stereochemical structure of the pendent groups on the hydrolysis products of the polymers were also observed

To investigate the effects of nanoparticle content, storage time, and storage temperature on the storage stability of asphalt binders modified by nanoparticles, hot tube storage tests, softening point tests, and dynamic-shearing rheometer (DSR) tests were adopted to evaluate the properties of two kinds of nanotitanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) modified asphalt binders. A statistical one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was employed to analyze the effects of those variations on the storage stability of the nano-TiO 2 modified asphalt binders. The results indicated that the softening point, the failure temperature, the dynamic-shear viscosity, and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mfenced open="|" close="|" separators="|"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>G</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>⁎</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:mfenced><mml:mo>/</mml:mo><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">s</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">i</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">n</mml:mi><mml:mfenced separators="|"><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">δ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mfenced></mml:math> of the binders increased with nanoparticle content. The storage stability of the binders decreased with nanoparticle content. The impact of storage time on the storage stability of the binders was remarkable when the storage time was more than 48 h. Moreover, the storage stability of the binders at low temperatures was better than that at high temperatures. Based on the one-way ANOVA, the size of nanoparticle had little influence on the storage stability of the nano-TiO 2 modified asphalt binders in this study. Reducing the nanoparticle size cannot effectively enhance the storage stability of the nanoparticle modified asphalt binder due to the agglomeration of nanoparticle.

The adhesion bonding between asphalt and aggregate significantly influences field performance and durability of asphalt pavement. Adhesion promoters are typically used to improve asphalt-aggregate bonding and minimize moisture-related pavement damage, such as cracking and raveling. This study evaluated the effectiveness of plant ash byproduct as adhesion promoter to improve asphalt-aggregate adhesion performance. Three commonly used aggregate types (granite, basic rock, and limestone) and two asphalt binder types were used in laboratory testing. A modified stripping test method was developed to evaluate test results with image analysis and measurement of asphalt film thickness. The contact angle test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS) were conducted. Test results showed that plant ash lixivium significantly improved asphalt-aggregate adhesion. Among three aggregate types, granite yielded the worst asphalt-aggregate adhesion for both control and treated specimens. The effectiveness of adhesion promotion varied depending on the type of asphalt or aggregate and temperature. The SEM/EDS observations showed that the mesh-like crystalline was formed at the interface between asphalt binder and aggregate in the treated specimen, which was believed to enhance the interfacial bonding and prevent asphalt film peeling off from aggregate.

ABSTRACT Recently, metal coordination has been widely utilized to fabricate high‐performance hydrogels, but conventional metal‐based hydrogels face some drawbacks, such as staining or acid lability. In the present study, a novel kind of colorless Zr(IV)‐crosslinked polyacrylamide/polyanionic cellulose (PAM/PAC) composite hydrogel with unique acid resistance was constructed via acrylamide polymerization in a PAC solution, followed by posttreatment in a zirconium oxychloride (ZrOCl 2 ) solution. The prepared gels were characterized in terms of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and tensile and compressive mechanics, as well as acid resistance. Inside the gels, the synergistic action of hydrogen bonding and Zr(IV) coordination is responsible for their improved mechanical properties and good energy dissipation ability. One hydrogel with nearly 90 wt % of water content can sustain approximately 5 MPa of compression stress at 90% strain without damage. Both microscopic network structures and macroscopic mechanics demonstrate facile adjustability via changing the PAC dosages in polymerization and/or ZrOCl 2 concentrations in posttreatment. Moreover, the gels present unexpected acid resistance due to the strong Zr(IV) coordination with PAC, demonstrating their potential application as hydrogel electrolytes in supercapacitors. The current work provides a new approach to fabricate metal coordination‐based high strength, colorless hydrogels with acid resistance. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57 , 981–991

Vinyl Benzoate/Heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate (VBe/HFDA) co-polymers were synthesized and characterized as thickening agents for supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂). The solubility and thickening capability of the co-polymer samples in SC-CO₂ were evaluated by measuring cloud point pressure and relative viscosity. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation for all atoms was employed to simulate the microscopic molecular behavior and the intermolecular interaction of co-polymer⁻CO₂ systems. We found that the introduction of VBe group decreased the polymer⁻CO₂ interaction and increased the polymer⁻polymer interaction, leading to a reduction in solubility of the co-polymers in SC-CO₂. However, the co-polymer could generate more effective inter-chain interaction and generate more viscosity enhancement compared to the Poly(Heptadecafluorodecyl) (PHFDA) homopolymer due to the driving force provided by π-π stacking of the VBe groups. The optimum molar ratio value for VBe in co-polymers for the viscosity enhancement of SC-CO₂ was found to be 0.33 in this work. The P(HFDA0.67-co-VBe0.33) was able to enhance the viscosity of SC-CO₂ by 438 times at 5 wt. %. Less VBe content would result in a lack of intermolecular interaction, although excessive VBe content would generate more intramolecular π-π stacking and less intermolecular π-π stacking. Both conditions reduce the thickening capability of the P(HFDA-co-VBe) co-polymer. This work presented the relationship between structure and performance of the co-polymers in SC-CO₂ by combining experiment and molecular simulations.

Anomaly detection is vital in various industrial scenarios, including the identification of unusual patterns in production lines and the detection of manufacturing defects for quality control. Existing techniques tend to be specialized in individual scenarios and lack generalization capacities. In this study, we aim to develop a generic anomaly detection model applicable across multiple scenarios. To achieve this, we customize generic visual-language foundation models that possess extensive knowledge and robust reasoning abilities into anomaly detectors and reasoners. Specifically, we introduce a multi-modal prompting strategy that incorporates domain knowledge from experts as conditions to guide the models. Our approach considers multi-modal prompt types, including task descriptions, class context, normality rules, and reference images. In addition, we unify the input representation of multi-modality into a 2D image format, enabling multi-modal anomaly detection and reasoning. Our preliminary studies demonstrate that combining visual and language prompts as conditions for customizing the models enhances anomaly detection performance. The customized models showcase the ability to detect anomalies across different data modalities such as images and point clouds. Qualitative case studies further highlight the anomaly detection and reasoning capabilities, particularly for multi-object scenes and temporal data. Our code is available at https://github.com/Xiaohao-Xu/Customizable-VLM.

To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (CITSEA).A cross-sectional survey through parent self-administered questionnaires in Chinese urban communities. Fourteen cities from the Southern, Northern, Eastern, Western and Central China were involved.A total of 5323 healthy toddlers (2690 boys and 2633 girls) aged 12 to 36 months from the 14 cities recruited through a multi-stage sampling scheme.Self-administered questionnaire was employed to collect the social demographic data, and the Chinese translation of ITSEA was used to collect data on children's social and emotional behavior.The reliability and validity of CITSEA were examined by standard psychometric methods. 1) The test-retest reliability of four broad domains ranged from 0.78 to 0.89 at the significant level p<0.001; 2) Split-half reliability ranged from 0.82 to 0.90 (p<0.001); 3) The alpha coefficient was noticed to range from 0.79 to 0.88, which demonstrated good internal consistency. Furthermore, as is hypothesized, the score of CITSEA domains was significantly correlated with subscale's score of the Child Behavior Checklist 2/3 (CBCL2/3) and dimension's score of China Toddler Temperament. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a good and reliable match of the model, indicating that CITSEA outlines the social and emotional development of Chinese urban children aged 12 to 36 months.The Chinese version of ITSEA is valid and the psychometric properties of this translated version (including its reliability and validity) are at an acceptable standard. It can be used as an instrument for assessing social and emotional problems, including delays in social-emotional competence for Chinese young children.

Abstract Novel poly( L ‐histidine)‐chitosan/alginate complex microcapsules were prepared from biodegradable polymers poly( L ‐histidine) (PLHis) in the presence of chitosan at acetate buffer solution pH 4.6. Microcapsules obtained are spherical and well‐dispersed with a smooth surface and a narrow size distribution. The microcapsules can encapsulate the protein model drug hemoglobin (Hb) efficiently. The results show that the complex microcapsules with low, medium, or high molecular weight of chitosan (0.05%, w/v), the highest encapsulation efficiencies obtained are 91.3%, 85.9%, and 94.2% with loading efficiencies of 47.8%, 44.3%, and 39.7%, respectively. The release profiles indicate that Hb‐loaded microcapsules conform to first‐order release kinetic in whole procedure, and 84.8%, 71.4%, and 87.3% of Hb were released during 72‐h incubation in PBS pH6.8 for microcapsules with low, medium, and high molecular weight chitosan (0.05%, w/v), respectively. The results also indicate that particle size and drug loading efficiency have a significant influence on the release profile and encapsulation efficiency. Our results reveal that the PLHis‐chitosan/alginate complex microcapsules are able to encapsulate and release Hb and are potential carriers for protein drugs. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012

In this paper, the nonlinear mechanical response of elastic cable structures under mechanical load is studied based on the discrete catenary theory. A cable net is discretized into multiple nodes and edges in our numerical approach, which is followed by an analytical formulation of the elastic energy and the associated Hessian matrix to realize the dynamic simulation. A fully implicit framework is proposed based on the discrete differential geometry (DDG) theory. The equilibrium configuration of a target object is derived by adding damping force into the system, known as the dynamic relaxation method. The mechanical response of a single suspended cable is investigated and compared with the analytical solution for cross-validation. A more intricate scenario is further discussed in detail, where a structure consisting of multiple slender cables is connected through joints. Utilizing the robustness and efficiency of our discrete numerical framework, a systematic parameter sweep is performed to quantify the force displacement relationships of nets with the different number of cables and different directions of fibers. Finally, an empirical scaling law is provided to account for the rigidity of elastic cable net in terms of its geometric properties, material characteristics, component numbers, and cable orientations. Our results would provide new insight in revealing the connections between flexible structures and tensegrity structures, and could motivate innovative designs in both mechanical and civil engineered equipment.

Tensegrity robots, which are composed of compressive elements (rods) and flexible tensile elements (e.g., cables), have a variety of advantages, including flexibility, low weight, and resistance to mechanical impact. Nevertheless, the hybrid soft-rigid nature of these robots also complicates the ability to localize and track their state. This work aims to address what has been recognized as a grand challenge in this domain, i.e., the state estimation of tensegrity robots through a marker-less, vision-based method, as well as novel, on-board sensors that can measure the length of the robot's cables. In particular, an iterative optimization process is proposed to track the 6-DoF pose of each rigid element of a tensegrity robot from an RGB-D video as well as endcap distance measurements from the cable sensors. To ensure that the pose estimates of rigid elements are physically feasible, i.e., they are not resulting in collisions between rods or with the environment, physical constraints are introduced during the optimization. Real-world experiments are performed with a 3-bar tensegrity robot, which performs locomotion gaits. Given ground truth data from a motion capture system, the proposed method achieves less than 1 cm translation error and 3 $$^\circ $$ rotation error, which significantly outperforms alternatives. At the same time, the approach can provide accurate pose estimation throughout the robot's motion, while motion capture often fails due to occlusions.

Stimuli-responsive Pickering interfacial biocatalysis is a prominent topic in biphasic biocatalysis for its high efficiency and flexible tunability. Herein, we designed CO2/N2-responsive sodium caseinate (NaCas)–enzyme conjugates that acted as both catalytic sites and stabilizers to construct a responsive Pickering interfacial biocatalytic system. The conjugates were prepared by a one-step strategy in which amino groups reacted with carboxyl groups between NaCas and enzymes. In the meantime, NaCas, with a disordered structure, could act as a buffer in the microenvironment to improve enzyme stability in harsh environments. The emulsion system stabilized by horseradish peroxidase (HRP)–NaCas displayed a higher catalytic efficiency and conversion rate compared with the conventional two-phase system, and HRP–NaCas could be easily recycled at least five times by bubbling CO2 and N2. Furthermore, the coupled NaCas system was implemented in Candida antarctica lipase B (CaLB), which extended the excellent interfacial characteristics and application field of NaCas.

The accelerated rise of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains presents a significant challenge to both global health and the economy. Although silver-based materials have already been successfully developed in dealing with the infections of drug-resistant bacteria, there has been much controversy over the applications of them because the waste silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are potentially harmful to humanity and the environment. To address this issue, gliadin@AgNPs hybrid nanoparticles with ultralow minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were designed via growing AgNPs on amphiphilic gliadin molecule, followed by co-assembly-induced nanoencapsulation of AgNPs. The highly monodispersed gliadin nanoparticles (∼120 nm) infused with ultrasmall AgNPs (2–3 nm) were synthesized successfully. This strategy protected AgNPs from aggregation and fast oxidation, exerted programmed release profiles. In vitro antibacterial experiments demonstrate the hybrids could kill a broad-spectrum bacteria at an ultralow Ag equivalent, with MBCs of 0.0312 and 0.125 μg/mL for E. coli and MRSA, respectively. More importantly, its MBC against E. coli below the safety threshold established by the WHO for drinking water (0.1 ppm). Using the hybrid nanostructure as building blocks, we fabricated unprecedented protein-based antimicrobial porous materials for the first time through Pickering HIPEs templates, which was characterized by the formation of gliadin@AgNPs-decorated nanostructures on the pore wall of porous materials. They have a complex interlaced tubular porous structure with over 96 % porosity, presenting programmed release behavior of Ag+, and were able to inhibit the growth of tested bacteria at concentrations that did not affect the viability of HaCaT human cells, confirming that hierarchical nanomaterials possess valid antibacterial activity within the cellular viability concentration range. Particularly, the antimicrobial protein porous material promoted HaCaT cell adhesion and proliferation within its hierarchical nanostructure. This work provides new insights into the rational design of advanced gliadin@AgNPs as a potent antibacterial nanoplatform with a much smaller environmental impact and health concerns and a building block for constructing protein-based porous materials with outstanding antimicrobial performance and biocompatibility for emerging applications in catalysis, tissue engineering, and environmental engineering.

Visual Anomaly Detection (VAD) endeavors to pinpoint deviations from the concept of normality in visual data, widely applied across diverse domains, e.g., industrial defect inspection, and medical lesion detection. This survey comprehensively examines recent advancements in VAD by identifying three primary challenges: 1) scarcity of training data, 2) diversity of visual modalities, and 3) complexity of hierarchical anomalies. Starting with a brief overview of the VAD background and its generic concept definitions, we progressively categorize, emphasize, and discuss the latest VAD progress from the perspective of sample number, data modality, and anomaly hierarchy. Through an in-depth analysis of the VAD field, we finally summarize future developments for VAD and conclude the key findings and contributions of this survey.

Robustness is a crucial factor for the successful deployment of robots in unstructured environments, particularly in the domain of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Simulation-based benchmarks have emerged as a highly scalable approach for robustness evaluation compared to real-world data collection. However, crafting a challenging and controllable noisy world with diverse perturbations remains relatively under-explored. To this end, we propose a novel, customizable pipeline for noisy data synthesis, aimed at assessing the resilience of multi-modal SLAM models against various perturbations. This pipeline incorporates customizable hardware setups, software components, and perturbed environments. In particular, we introduce comprehensive perturbation taxonomy along with a perturbation composition toolbox, allowing the transformation of clean simulations into challenging noisy environments. Utilizing the pipeline, we instantiate the Robust-SLAM benchmark, which includes diverse perturbation types, to evaluate the risk tolerance of existing advanced multi-modal SLAM models. Our extensive analysis uncovers the susceptibilities of existing SLAM models to real-world disturbance, despite their demonstrated accuracy in standard benchmarks. Our perturbation synthesis toolbox, SLAM robustness evaluation pipeline, and Robust-SLAM benchmark will be made publicly available at https://github.com/Xiaohao-Xu/SLAM-under-Perturbation/.

Sliver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have attracted tremendous interest as an alternative to commercially available antibiotics due to their low microbial resistance and broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. However, AgNPs are highly reactive and unstable and are susceptible to fast oxidation. Synthesizing stable and efficient AgNPs using green chemistry principles remains a major challenge. To address this issue, we establish a facile route to form AgNP-doped zein nanoparticle core-satellite superstructures with ultralow minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). In brief, polyphenol surface-functionalization of zein nanoparticles was performed, and the epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) layer on zein nanoparticles served as a reducing-cum-stabilizing agent. We used EGCG-decorated zein nanoparticles (ZE) as a template to direct the nucleation and growth of AgNPs to develop metallized hybrid nanoparticles (ZE-Ag). The highly monodispersed core-satellite nanoparticles (∼150 nm) decorated with ∼4.9 nm AgNPs were synthesized successfully. The spatial restriction of EGCG by zein nanoparticles confined the nucleation and growth of AgNPs only on the surface of the particles, which prevented the formation of entangled clusters of polyphenols and AgNPs and concomitantly inhibited the coalescence and oxidation of AgNPs. Thus, this strategy improved the effective specific surface area of AgNPs, and as a result, ZE-Ag efficiently killed the indicator bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) after 20 min of incubation, with MBCs of 2 and 4 μg/mL, respectively. This situation indicated that as-prepared core-satellite nanoparticles possessed potent short-term sterilization capability. Moreover, the simulated wound infection model also confirmed the promising application of ZE-Ag as an efficient antimicrobial composite. This work provides new insights into the synthesis and emerging application of AgNPs in food preservation, packaging, biomedicine, and catalysis.

In recent years, video anomaly detection has been extensively investigated in both unsupervised and weakly supervised settings to alleviate costly temporal labeling. Despite significant progress, these methods still suffer from unsatisfactory results such as numerous false alarms, primarily due to the absence of precise temporal anomaly annotation. In this paper, we present a novel labeling paradigm, termed "glance annotation", to achieve a better balance between anomaly detection accuracy and annotation cost. Specifically, glance annotation is a random frame within each abnormal event, which can be easily accessed and is cost-effective. To assess its effectiveness, we manually annotate the glance annotations for two standard video anomaly detection datasets: UCF-Crime and XD-Violence. Additionally, we propose a customized GlanceVAD method, that leverages gaussian kernels as the basic unit to compose the temporal anomaly distribution, enabling the learning of diverse and robust anomaly representations from the glance annotations. Through comprehensive analysis and experiments, we verify that the proposed labeling paradigm can achieve an excellent trade-off between annotation cost and model performance. Extensive experimental results also demonstrate the effectiveness of our GlanceVAD approach, which significantly outperforms existing advanced unsupervised and weakly supervised methods. Code and annotations will be publicly available at https://github.com/pipixin321/GlanceVAD.

Recurrent inflammation, intense bacterial infections, and inadequate blood vessel growth make diabetic wounds non-healing. Under pathological environment, cellular functions are also inhibited. In this paper, we developed a novel in situ injectable photo-crosslinking hydrogel embedded with heterojunction Ag@ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) which exhibit dual-channel synergistic ion release and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production for anti-bacteria and cutaneous regeneration. This novel hydrogel platform can be introduced onto any irregular wound and form gelation with 395 nm UV light irradiation in only 5 s. After being affixed to the wound, Ag+ and Zn2+ can be released as the first interaction for wound healing. Foremost, the heterojunction formed on interface of Ag and ZnO has the ability to capture oxygen and water to instigate the generation of a "ROS storm", which can disrupt the structural integrity of bacteria, trigger the leakage of bacterial cytoplasmic content, enhance angiogenesis by activating VEGF and CD31 expression, and stimulate the steps of wound healing. The continuous release of Ag+, Zn2+ and "ROS storm" collaboratively drive bacterial deactivation, suppress inflammation, promote cellular proliferation, collagen deposition and angiogenesis. These effects significantly accelerate diabetic chronic wounds healing. Therefore, such dual-channel synergistic hydrogel platform might provide a promising new insight to diabetic chronic wound treatment.

Abstract Acid‐labile, thermoresponsive polymers with pendant six‐membered cyclic acetal groups were prepared by radical polymerization of two monomers, N ‐(2,2‐dimethyl‐1,3‐dioxan‐5‐yl) methacrylamide (NDMM) and N ‐(2,2‐dimethyl‐1,3‐dioxan‐5‐yl) acrylamide (NDMA). The aqueous solution properties of the polymers, PNDMM and PNDMA, were studied by turbidimetry, 1 H NMR, fluorescence, and DSC measurements. It is found that both polymers show sensitive and reversible phase transitions with distinct lower critical solution temperatures (LCST). Below their LCSTs, there are still some polymer aggregates as evidenced by measurements of pyrene excitation spectra and urea effects on the cloud points (CP) of polymers. The salting effect of six inorganic sodium salts on the phase transition behavior of PNDMM was investigated by turbidimetric approach. The salting‐out to salting‐in effect is in the order of SO 4 2− &gt; F − &gt; Cl − &gt; Br − &gt; I − &gt; SCN − , following the Hofmeister's series. pH‐dependent hydrolysis of PNDMM and PNDMA was studied by turbidimetric and 1 H NMR methods. They are both pH‐sensitive and their hydrolysis rates significantly increase with decreasing pH value. The CP of PNDMM gradually increases with the acid‐triggered hydrolysis of the acetal groups and the hydrolyzed polymer with ∼ 30% hydrolysis degree does not show thermally induced phase transition. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 4332–4343, 2008

Angewandte ChemieVolume 125, Issue 31 p. 8232-8236 Zuschrift Multi-Chromatic pH-Activatable 19F-MRI Nanoprobes with Binary ON/OFF pH Transitions and Chemical-Shift Barcodes† Dr. Xiaonan Huang, Dr. Xiaonan Huang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Gang Huang, Dr. Gang Huang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Shanrong Zhang, Dr. Shanrong Zhang Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Koji Sagiyama, Dr. Koji Sagiyama Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Osamu Togao, Dr. Osamu Togao Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Xinpeng Ma, Dr. Xinpeng Ma Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Yiguang Wang, Dr. Yiguang Wang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorYang Li, Yang Li Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Todd C. Soesbe, Dr. Todd C. Soesbe Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Baran D. Sumer, Dr. Baran D. Sumer Department of Otolaryngology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. Masaya Takahashi, Prof. Masaya Takahashi Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. A. Dean Sherry, Prof. A. Dean Sherry Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. Jinming Gao, Corresponding Author Prof. Jinming Gao jinming.gao@utsouthwestern.edu Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this author Dr. Xiaonan Huang, Dr. Xiaonan Huang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Gang Huang, Dr. Gang Huang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Shanrong Zhang, Dr. Shanrong Zhang Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Koji Sagiyama, Dr. Koji Sagiyama Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Osamu Togao, Dr. Osamu Togao Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Xinpeng Ma, Dr. Xinpeng Ma Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Yiguang Wang, Dr. Yiguang Wang Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorYang Li, Yang Li Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Todd C. Soesbe, Dr. Todd C. Soesbe Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorDr. Baran D. Sumer, Dr. Baran D. Sumer Department of Otolaryngology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. Masaya Takahashi, Prof. Masaya Takahashi Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. A. Dean Sherry, Prof. A. Dean Sherry Advance Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this authorProf. Jinming Gao, Corresponding Author Prof. Jinming Gao jinming.gao@utsouthwestern.edu Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Department of Pharmacology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvds, Dallas, TX 75390 (USA)Search for more papers by this author First published: 20 June 2013 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201301135Citations: 17 † This work is supported by the NIH (R01CA129011, R01EB013149). We acknowledge the assistance of the Southwestern Small Animal Imaging Resource, which is supported in part by NCI U24 CA126608, the Simmons Cancer Center through an NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA142543). Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Eine Serie von Nanosonden für die Kernspintomographie wurde aus ionisierbaren Diblockcopolymeren hergestellt und mit verschiedenen 19F-Rezeptoren für spezifische pH-Änderungen kodiert. Das pH-Signal ist extrem scharf (ΔpHAn/Aus≈0.25 pH) und resultiert aus der Dissoziation der Polymermicellen (siehe Schema). Ein System aus drei Nanosonden ermöglichte die qualitative Messung von Umgebungs-pH-Werten. Citing Literature Supporting Information As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Filename Description ange_201301135_sm_miscellaneous_information.pdf873.3 KB miscellaneous_information Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article. Volume125, Issue31July 29, 2013Pages 8232-8236 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

Diagnosis and multitherapy strategies that coexist in a single system for cancer therapy has a great clinical application potential. In this paper, we developed doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded gelatin hydrogels contained with UCNP@NGO nanoparticles (Gelatin/UCNP@NGO+DOX) for chemophotothermal dual-model synergistic cancer therapy and upconversion luminescence (UCL) imaging. Gelatin/UCNP@NGO+DOX hydrogels could release the DOX via laser irradiation or in tumor microenvironment, and then cancer therapy efficiency could be improved by chemophotothermal synergistic effects. In vitro experimental Gelatin/UCNP@NGO+DOX hydrogels exhibit outstanding photothermal properties and excellent tumor-killing efficiency. We also use in vivo antitumor experiments to further illustrate that Gelatin/UCNP@NGO+DOX hydrogels can exhibit excellent synergistic antitumor efficacy, compared with chemotherapy or photothermal methods. This paper shows a new hydrogel system that could both load chemotherapeutic drugs efficiently and enhance chemotherapy effect using near-infrared light-radiation photothermal therapy.

We introduce a soft robot actuator composed of a pre-stressed elastomer film embedded with shape memory alloy (SMA) and a liquid metal (LM) curvature sensor. SMA-based actuators are commonly used as electrically-powered limbs to enable walking, crawling, and swimming of soft robots. However, they are susceptible to overheating and long-term degradation if they are electrically stimulated before they have time to mechanically recover from their previous activation cycle. Here, we address this by embedding the soft actuator with a capacitive LM sensor capable of measuring bending curvature. The soft sensor is thin and elastic and can track curvature changes without significantly altering the natural mechanical properties of the soft actuator. We show that the sensor can be incorporated into a closed-loop “bang-bang” controller to ensure that the actuator fully relaxes to its natural curvature before the next activation cycle. In this way, the activation frequency of the actuator can be dynamically adapted for continuous, cyclic actuation. Moreover, in the special case of slower, low power actuation, we can use the embedded curvature sensor as feedback for achieving partial actuation and limiting the amount of curvature change.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00571-3.

Excessive bleeding induces a high risk of death and is a leading cause of deaths that result from traffic accidents and military conflict. In this paper, we developed a novel porous chitosan–CaCO3 (CS–CaCO3) composite material and investigated its hemostatic properties and wound healing performance. The CS–CaCO3 composites material was prepared via a wet-granulation method. Granulation increases the infiltrating ability of the CS–CaCO3 composites material. The improved water absorption ability was enhanced to 460% for the CS–CaCO3 composites material compared to the CaCO3 or chitosan with only one single component. The coagulation studies in vivo illustrated that the blood clotting time was greatly reduced from 31 s for CaCO3 to 16 s for the CS–CaCO3 composite material. According to the results of the wound healing experiments in rats, it was found that the CS–CaCO3 composite material can promote wound healing. The CS–CaCO3 composite material could accelerate wound healing to a rate of 9 days, compared with 12 days for the CaCO3. The hemostatic activity, biocompatibility, and low cost of CS–CaCO3 composite material make it a potential agent for effective hemostatic and wound healing materials.

Despite tremendous progress in the development of untethered soft robots in recent years, existing systems lack the mobility, model‐based control, and motion planning capabilities of their piecewise rigid counterparts. As in conventional robotic systems, the development of versatile locomotion of soft robots is aided by the integration of hardware design and control with modeling tools that account for their unique mechanics and environmental interactions. Here, a framework for physics‐based modeling, motion planning, and control of a fully untethered swimming soft robot is introduced. This framework enables offline co‐design in the simulation of robot parameters and gaits to produce effective open‐loop behaviors and enables closed‐loop planning over motion primitives for feedback control of a frog‐inspired soft robot testbed. This pipeline uses a discrete elastic rods (DERs) physics engine that discretizes the soft robot as many stretchable and bendable rods. On hardware, an untethered aquatic soft robot that performs frog‐like rowing behaviors is engineered. Hardware validation verifies that the simulation has sufficient accuracy to find the best candidates for sets of parameters offline. The simulator is then used to generate a trajectory library of the robot's motion in simulation that is used in real‐time closed‐loop path following experiments on hardware.

Tensegrity robots are deformable robots that require highly-stretchable and reliable sensors for proprioception and closed-loop control. We introduce capacitive sensor tendons made of liquid metal electrodes and dielectric silicone that are capable of high strains on the order of hundreds of percent that double as the tensile elements of tensegrity robots. The electromechanical response of the sensor tendons is characterized in ultimate strain, cyclic, and relaxation experiments to demonstrate the sensors' reliability in robotics applications.

Growing evidence indicates that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene is an important candidate gene for influencing the development of osteoporosis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential association between genetic variants of VDR gene and bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis in Chinese postmenopausal women. The study included 970 Chinese postmenopausal women at the postmenopausal osteoporosis (482) and healthy controls (488). The BMD of lumbar spine (L(2-4) anterior-posterior view), femoral neck hip, and total hip was evaluated using the Norland XR-46 dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The genotypes of VDR genetic variants were determined by the created restriction site-PCR (CRS-PCR) and confirmed by DNA sequencing methods. Our data indicated that the VDR p.Glicine (Gly)14 alanine (Ala) and p.histidine (His) 305 glutanine (Gln) genetic variants were statistically associated with adjusted femoral neck hip BMD, adjusted lumbar spine BMD, and adjusted total hip BMD (P values < 0.05). Results from this study suggest that the VDR p.Gly14Ala and p.His305Gln genetic variants are significantly associated with BMD decrease in Chinese postmenopausal women and might be used as molecular markers for assessing the risk of BMD and osteoporosis.

Understanding the determinants of tree biomass allocation patterns among organs is crucial for both predicting the rate and potential of forest carbon sinks and guiding future multifunctional forest management. However, it is still not clear how the site conditions (e.g., elevation) and stand structure (e.g., tree dominance, stand density) affect the biomass allocation of single trees in forests. This study was implemented in the Liupan Mountains of the Loess Plateau of Northwest China by collecting the related information of biomass data of 110 sample trees with different dominance and influencing factors within 23 sample plots of larch plantations set up along the elevation gradient. Based on these data, the response tendency and functions of biomass allocation of single trees to individual influencing factors of site conditions and forest structure were analyzed. Moreover, the results illustrated that the ratio between root biomass and aboveground biomass decreased significantly with rising stand age and tree density, but increased significantly with rising elevation, and there was no significant relationship with the dominance of individual trees. The results of this study revealed the importance of considering the influencing factors of site conditions and stand structure when developing dynamic models of tree biomass allocation. The results and research methods used in this study provide useful tools for quantifying the biomass allocation and carbon storage partitioning in the study area and other similar regions.

This lysosome-oriented, dual-stage UPS polymeric system achieves drug targeting and controlled release.

Stimuli-responsive nanocomposite has a great potential application for cell imaging, drug delivery, and improving therapeutic effect.

It is important to emphasize that the adjustment of an organic–inorganic interfacial chemical environment plays an important role during the separation performance of composite materials. In this paper, a series of hybrid membranes were prepared by blending polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution and sulfonated nano-TiO2 (SNT) suspension. The effects of different interfacial chemical surroundings on ions transfer were explored by regulating the dosage content of SNT. The as-prepared membranes exhibited high thermal and mechanical stability, with initial decomposition temperatures of 220–253 °C, tensile strengths of 31.5–53.4 MPa, and elongations at break of 74.5–146.0%. The membranes possessed moderate water uptake (WR) values of 90.9–101.7% and acceptable alkali resistances (swelling degrees were 187.2–206.5% and weight losses were 10.0–20.8%). The as-prepared membranes were used for the alkali recovery of a NaOH/Na2WO4 system via the diffusion dialysis process successfully. The results showed that the dialysis coefficients of OH− (UOH) were in a range of 0.013–0.022 m/h, and separate factors (S) were in an acceptable range of 22–33. Sulfonic groups in the interfacial regions and –OH in the PVA main chains were both deemed to play corporate roles during the transport of Na+ and OH−.

In this paper, we present a soft modular block inspired by tensegrity structures that can form load-bearing structures through self-assembly. The block comprises a stellated compliant skeleton, shape memory alloy muscles, and permanent magnet connectors. We classify five deformation primitives for individual blocks: bend, compress, stretch, stand, and shrink, which can be combined across modules to reason about full-lattice deformation. Hierarchical function is abundant in nature and in human-designed systems. Using multiple self-assembled lattices, we demonstrate the formation and actuation of 3-dimensional shapes, including a load-bearing pop-up tent, a self-assembled wheel, a quadruped, a block-based robotic arm with gripper, and non-prehensile manipulation. To our knowledge, this is the first example of active deformable modules (blocks) that can reconfigure into different load-bearing structures on-demand.

Temperature fluctuation attenuators are important passive components for disturbance rejection in precise temperature control system, but previous attenuator researches mainly focused on increasing effective heat capacity to achieve better attenuation. In this paper, the temperature phase regulator (TPR) model is proposed as a superior method to reduce fluid temperature disturbances with less capacity. It achieves output temperature fluctuation attenuation by shifting the phase of the delay side temperature signal and mixing it with the normal side. Similar to the principle that notch filters can highly attenuate signals in specific frequency bands, we constructed TPR theoretical models under equal flow ratios and non-equal flow ratios. Different bandwidths, attenuation depths and target center frequencies can be achieved by changing the two parameters of equivalent heat capacity and flow ratio, and the mechanism of parameters affecting the TPR amplitude-frequency characteristics was analyzed. In terms of effect evaluation, we verified the correlation between the frequency domain and the time domain data, and compared the TPR with the thermal capacity attenuator and other popular attenuators in terms of MSE, MAE and Max-min of temperature data. In a typical temperature attenuation test, TPR can achieve 40% and 35% of MAE and Max-min value attenuation rates, which are exceeding the ideal upper limit of other attenuators and far superior to typical attenuators. The experimental data confirmed the feasibility of the heat capacity of the pipe to support the TPR delay side as a pure delay. The experimental results of non-equal flow ratios verified the model reference-ability of changing flow ratio. In the equal flow ratio test, the fit of the actual data curve and the theoretical curve showed the accuracy of the theoretical model, and the MAE attenuation ratio better than 70% reflected the excellent attenuation performance.

Abstract Multiphase mixtures containing both liquid metal and solid inclusions in a soft polymeric matrix can exhibit unique combinations of mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties. Gallium‐based liquid metals have excellent electrical and thermal properties, and incorporating additional conductive, magnetic, or other solid fillers into liquid metal‐embedded elastomers can yield heightened electrical and thermal conductivities, enhanced elasticity due to lowered percolation thresholds, and positive piezoconductivity. This emerging class of liquid metal + x composites, where x denotes any solid filler type, has applications in stretchable electronics, wearables, soft robotics, and energy harvesting and storage. In this review, the recent literature is consolidated on liquid metal + x composites and their potential to offer uniquely amplified or multiplied bulk properties is highlighted. The literature related to the materials and processing of liquid metal + x composites is reviewed, through which it is found that the properties of the resulting multiphase composites are sensitive to the sequence in which the distinct liquid metal and solid inclusions are incorporated into the continuous phase. This review further includes a summary of relevant predictive modeling approaches, as well as identifies grand challenges and opportunities to advance liquid metal + x composites.

CYP76AH1 is the key enzyme in the biosynthesis pathway of tanshinones in Salvia miltiorrhiza, which are famous natural products with activities against various heart diseases and others. CYP76AH1 is a membrane-associated typical plant class II cytochrome P450 enzyme and its catalytic mechanism has not to be clearly elucidated. Structural determination of eukaryotic P450 enzymes is extremely challenging. Recently, we solved the crystal structures of CYP76AH1 and CYP76AH1 in complex with its natural substrate miltiradiene. The structure of CYP76AH1 complexed with miltiradiene is the first plant cytochrome P450 structure in complex with natural substrate. The studies revealed a unique array pattern of amino acid residues, which may play an important role in orienting and stabilizing the substrate for catalysis. This work would provide structural insights into CYP76AH1 and related P450s and the basis to efficiently improve tanshinone production by synthetic biology techniques.

The applications of alginate lyase are diverse, but efficient commercial enzymes are still unavailable. In this study, a novel alginate lyase with high activity was obtained from the marine bacteria Vibrio sp. Ni1. The ORF of the algB gene has 1824 bp, encoding 607 amino acids. Homology analysis shows that AlgB belongs to the PL7 family. There are two catalytic domains with the typical region of QIH found in AlgB. The purified recombinant enzyme of AlgB shows highest activity at 35 °C, pH 8.0, and 50 mmol/L Tris-HCl without any metal ions. Only K+ slightly enhances the activity, while Fe2+ and Cu2+ strongly inhibit the activity. The AlgB preferred polyM as substrate. The end products of enzymatic mixture are DP2 and DP3, without any metal ion to assist them. This enzyme has good industrial application prospects.

A novel nanofibrous membrane, which contains chitosan/sodium alginate nanocapsules constructed by vesicle systems, has been fabricated <italic>via</italic> an electrospinning process as a drug-delivery system.

Carboxyl-type boronic acid copolymers (CBACs) were synthesized by a radical polymerization method and used for the preparation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based composite membranes via a solution mixture method. The as-prepared composite membranes exhibited a water uptake (WR) of 122.6–150.0%, an ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 0.0147–0.0518 mmol g−1, and excellent mechanical (elongation at break (Eb) of 103.8–148.4%, tensile strength (TS) of 38.7–58.6 MPa) and thermal stability. The alkali resistances of the as-prepared membranes were tested by immersing the samples into 2 mol L−1 NaOH solutions at 25 °C for 60 h, and the results were encouraging: the mass loss and swelling degree of the as-prepared membranes were in the ranges of 1.9–5.9% and 222.6–241.9%, respectively. The separation performances of the as-prepared membranes were evaluated by the diffusion dialysis (DD) process with an NaOH/Na2WO4 mixture at room temperature. The results demonstrated that the dialysis coefficients of hydroxide (UOH) were in the range of 0.0147–0.0347 m h−1, and the separation factors (S) were in the range of 29.5–62.6. The introduced carboxyl groups from CBACs and the –OH groups from PVA were both deemed to play significant roles in the promotion of ion transport: the –COO− groups formed negatively charged transport channels for Na+ by electrostatic attraction, and the –OH groups promoted the transport of OH− via hydrogen bonding.

To elucidate the influence of processing conditions on pilose antlerś therapic effects, the protein composition and activities were compared on three kinds of pilose antler processed by lyophilization, freezing and traditional short-time heating, respectively. The concentration of the water soluble protein in freeze-dried pilose antler was 126.54 mg/g (Folin-Phenol assay), which was 13.1 times higher than that of heating processed antler. These proteins distributed widely in SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and the protein band between 50.0 kDa approximately 60.0 kDa achieved the highest concentration. The water extract of freeze-dried antler promoted the proliferation and IGF-I secretion of rat osteogenic-like cell UMR-106 by 245.25% ( MTT assay) and 66.36 ng/ml, which was respectively 2.2 times and 1.2 times of those of heating processed antler. The same candidate inhibited the growth of human hepatic carcinoma cell BEL-7402 by the highest rate of 47.64% , which was 1.4 times of heating processed antler. The activities of frozen fresh pilose antler were lower than those of its freeze-dried counterpart, but were much higher than those of heating processed antler. The results indicated that lyophilization help to remain the activity of pilose antlerś proteins as much as possible and improve its efficacy.

Novel pH responsive copolymers with tertiary amine groups were prepared by free radical polymerization with 2-(dialkylamino)ethyl methacrylate monomers. These polymers were pH sensitive with the ability to be responsively fine-tuned in aqueous solution, which was proven through titration, transmittance measurements, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The polymers were soluble in water at low pH values, induced by electrostatic repulsion between amine groups, and aggregated above their pKa value due to the hydrophobic effect of the alkyls. The pH responsive values were precisely tuned from 7.4 to 4.8 by increasing the hydrophobic monomer ratio. Our work provides a novel approach for the development of ultrasensitive pH-responsive polymers for application in biomedical materials.

Multiple myeloma is a clonal proliferation of plasma cells with multiple osteolytic lesions. Extramedullary dissemination of multiple myeloma in ovary is relatively uncommon. A 54-year-old female patient, diagnosed as multiple myeloma three years ago, was admitted to the hospital for the complaints of intermittent abdominal pain for three days. The vaginal gynecological ultrasound showed celiac solid mass. The emergent laparotomy showed a significantly enlarged right cystic ovary and the pathological reviews showed ovarian plasmacytoma. The final diagnosis of this patient was ovarian extramedullary plasmacytoma rupture and bleeding.

Shape memory alloy (SMA) has been widely used in soft robotics systems due to its high work density, shape programmability, rigidity tunability and low requirement of the peripheral electronic devices and power for control and actuation. However, the low bandwith of the SMA actuator resulted in long cooling time that limit the performance of the soft robotics. To address this issue, methods like embedding thermally conductive elastomer and adding antagonistic mechanisms have been attempted. Here, we combine both methods and construct a series of study to characterize the improvement in actuation performance of the SMA actuators both in air and water by embedding the SMA wire inside liquid metal embedded elastomer with various liquid metal volume ratio. The improvement in actuation frequency leads to a locomotion speed improvement of a frog-inspired swimming soft robot.

Natural systems integrate the work of many sub-units (cells) toward a large-scale unified goal (morphological and behavioral), which can counteract the effects of unexpected experiences, damage, or simply changes in tasks demands. In this letter, we exploit the opportunities presented by soft, modular, and tensegrity robots to introduce soft lattice modules that parallel the sub-units seen in biological systems. The soft lattice modules are comprised of 3D printed plastic “skeletons,” linear contracting shape memory alloy spring actuators, and permanent magnets that enable adhesion between modules. The soft lattice modules are capable of independent locomotion, and can also join with other modules to achieve collective, self-assembled, larger scale tasks such as collective locomotion and moving an object across the surface of the lattice assembly. This work represents a preliminary step toward soft modular systems capable of independent and collective behaviors, and provide a platform for future studies on distributed control.

EDITORIAL article Front. Robot. AI, 30 November 2022Sec. Soft Robotics Volume 9 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.1074549

In our work, we report an effective method to tune the upconversion emission of NaGdF4:Yb3+,Er3+@NaYF4 core/shell nanoparticles. The shell thickness-dependent upconversion luminescence of NaGdF4:Yb3+,Er3+@NaYF4 core/shell and the dye Rhodamine-B(RhB) composite were discussed in detail. It is found that the fluorescent dye RhB can remarkably improve the violet emission of the upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and simultaneously generating the 605 nm yellow emission through energy transfer. Importantly, it is revealed that the effective energy transfer distance between upconversion nanoparticles and RhB is shorter than 18 nm in the media of NaYF4. These results open a novel way for determining the energy transfer distance between the upconversion nanoparticles and the dyes and simultaneously tuning the emission brightness and the spectrum covering range of the upconversion nanoparticles for meeting the requirement in the application fields of light source, colorful display, biological imaging, and fluorescent probes.

Simulating the swimming of soft underwater robot remains challenging due to the absence of an efficient numerical framework that can effectively capture the geometrically nonlinear deformation of soft materials and structures when interacting with a liquid environment. Here, we address this by introducing a discrete differential geometry-based model that incorporates an implicit treatment of the elasticity of soft limbs and a fluid model with three different components: hydrodynamic drag, jetting, and virtual added mass. The physical engine can run faster than real-time on a single thread desktop processor. We experimentally validate this numerical simulation tool by performing tests using an untethered omni-directional star-shaped swimming soft robot that is capable of moving with multiple swimming gaits. Quantitative agreement between experiment and simulation indicates the potential application of such a numerical framework for robot design and for model-based control schemes.

In order to understand the non-point source pollution status in Longhong ravine basin of Westlake, the characteristics of nutrient losses in runoff was investigated during three rainstorms in one year. The results showed that long duration rainstorm event generally formed several runoff peaks, and the time of its lag behind the peaks of rain intensity was dependent on the distribution of heavy rainfall. The first flush was related to the antecedent rainfall, and the less rainfall in the earlier period, the more total phosphorus (TP) and ammonia (NH4+ -N) in runoff was washed off. During the recession of runoff, more subsurface runoff would result in a concentration peak of total nitrogen (TN) and nitrogen (NO3- -N) . The event mean concentration (EMC) of runoff nitrogen had a negative correlation with rainfall, rainfall duration, maximum rain intensity and average rain intensity except for antecedent rainfall, whereas the change in TP EMC showed the opposite trend. The transport fluxes of nutrients increased with an elevation in runoffs, and Pearson analysis showed that the transport fluxes of TN and NO3- -N had good correlations with runoff depth. The average transport fluxes of TP, TN, NH4+ -N and NO3- -N were 34.10, 1195.55, 1006.62 and 52.38 g x hm(-2), respectively, and NO3- -N was the main nitrogen form and accounted for 84% of TN.

Soft Robots In article number 2201259, Dinesh K. Patel, Xiaonan Huang, Lining Yao, Carmel Majidi, and co-workers present highly dynamic, robust, and fast-responding bistable actuators for use in soft robotics. These actuators use 3D printed soft materials and shape memory alloy for rapid motions with 1 Hz frequency. They enable the creation of reconfigurable soft robots that transition between walking, swimming, crawling, jumping, and rolling locomotion.

Tensegrity robots, composed of rigid rods and flexible cables, exhibit high strength-to-weight ratios and significant deformations, which enable them to navigate unstructured terrains and survive harsh impacts. They are hard to control, however, due to high dimensionality, complex dynamics, and a coupled architecture. Physics-based simulation is a promising avenue for developing locomotion policies that can be transferred to real robots. Nevertheless, modeling tensegrity robots is a complex task due to a substantial sim2real gap. To address this issue, this paper describes a Real2Sim2Real (R2S2R) strategy for tensegrity robots. This strategy is based on a differentiable physics engine that can be trained given limited data from a real robot. These data include offline measurements of physical properties, such as mass and geometry for various robot components, and the observation of a trajectory using a random control policy. With the data from the real robot, the engine can be iteratively refined and used to discover locomotion policies that are directly transferable to the real robot. Beyond the R2S2R pipeline, key contributions of this work include computing non-zero gradients at contact points, a loss function for matching tensegrity locomotion gaits, and a trajectory segmentation technique that avoids conflicts in gradient evaluation during training. Multiple iterations of the R2S2R process are demonstrated and evaluated on a real 3-bar tensegrity robot.

The densities of state and optical properties of matrix materials were studied with the help of first-principles calculations. It is found that the absorption and reflectance of the NaGdF4 system in the infrared region were comparatively low. Such low values were beneficial to the reduction of the loss of excitation light. Furthermore, Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped NaREF4 (RE: Gd, Lu, Y) were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method, which exhibited a regularly shaped hexagonal microrods. Under the excitation of 808 nm, 980 nm, 1064 nm and 1550 nm, three emission peaks were all observed at 521, 540 and 655 nm for these samples, and NaGdF4: Yb/Er has the highest fluorescence intensity among the three samples. Calculated and experimental results demonstrated that NaGdF4 is more suitable than the two other materials as a substrate for UC luminescence.

model seasonal factor A B S T R A C TIn reality, there are so-called holiday effects in the sales of many consumer goods, and their sales data have the characteristics of double trend change of time series.In view of this, by introducing the seasonal decomposition and ARIMA model, this paper proposes a sales forecasting model for the consumer goods with holiday effects.First, a dummy variable model is constructed to test the holiday effects in consumer goods market.Second, using the seasonal decomposition, the seasonal factor is separated from the original series, and the seasonally adjusted series is then obtained.Through the ARIMA model, a trend forecast to the seasonally adjusted series is further carried out.Finally, according to the multiplicative model, refilling the trend forecast value with the seasonal factor, thus, the final sales forecast results of the consumer goods with holiday effects can be obtained.Taking the cigarettes sales in G City, Guizhou, China as an example, the feasibility and effectiveness of this new model is verified by the example analysis results.

The treatment of certain neurodegenerative diseases is limited by inadequate delivery efficiency and nonspecific tissue distribution of the therapeutics. For therapeutics targeting the brain, they need to first cross the biological barriers separating the blood and the brain parenchyma, in particular the blood–brain barrier, to enter the targeted brain regions; for therapeutics targeting the eye, different layers of cornea, sclera, and retina including the blood–retinal barrier act as obstacles for delivery. The dynamic barriers (blood flow, lymphatic clearance, etc.) also hinder the effective delivery and accumulation of the therapeutics. One of the approaches is to use nanoparticles as delivery vehicles to transport therapeutics across these barriers to the targeted regions, especially to specific brain regions and retina. Subsequently, nanoparticles need to accumulate in certain brain or retinal regions, so that cargoes inside or attached to the nanoparticles can be released and more easily reach the effective concentration. This article aims to highlight the importance of drug distribution at specific brain and retinal regions for the treatment of different neurodegenerative diseases. To achieve this purpose, the criteria for choosing appropriate routes of administration, the challenges associated with respective biological barriers, the physiochemical properties as well as the stability and toxicity of nanoparticles, and also some specific properties required for delivering different cargoes are detailed. Commonly used therapeutics and gene therapy for treating neurodegeneration, along with opportunities and challenges will also be discussed.

The purpose of the brief report is to describe a form of community support group used during the Covid-19 virus epidemic in China. We describe the impetus for the support group (“Community Conversation Hour”), theoretical considerations, the structure of the group, and the recruitment process, and summarize participant responses and facilitator reflections to the group. Remarks regarding institutional support and the impact of the group are provided, as well as considerations for similar support groups in other countries.