Multi-strand Fibers with Hierarchical Helical Structures Driven by Water or Moisture for Soft Actuators.

Smart actuators that combine excellent mechanical properties and responsive actuating performance like biological muscles have attracted considerable attention. In this study, a water/humidity responsive actuator, consisting of multi-strand carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) fibers with helical structures, was prepared using wet-spinning and twisting methods. The results showed that owing to the multi-strand structure, the actuator consisted of one-, two-, three-, and four-strand helical fibers, thus achieving a combination of high strength (∼27 MPa), high toughness (>10.34 MJ/m3), and large load limit (>0.30 N), which enable the actuator to theoretically withstand a weight that is at least 20,000 times its weight. Meanwhile, owing to the excellent moisture-responsive ability of CMC, the actuator, with a 5 g load, could achieve untwisting motion. Additionally, its maximum speed was approximately 2158 ± 233 rpm/m under water stimulation, whereas the recovery speed could reach 804 ± 44 rpm/m. Moreover, this untwisting-recovery reversible process was cyclic, whereas the shape and the actuating speed of the actuator remained stable after more than 150 cycles. The actuator improved the load limit that the fiber could withstand when driving under stimulation, thereby enabling the actuator to lift or move heavy objects like human muscles when executing spontaneously under external stimuli. This result shows considerable potential applications in artificial muscles and biomimetic robots.

Acute Cerebral Ischemia Increases a Set of Brain-Specific miRNAs in Serum Small Extracellular Vesicles.

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) miRNAs are promising diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers for ischemic stroke (IS). This study aimed to determine the impact of IS on the serum sEVs miRNA profile of IS patients and a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) mouse model. Small RNAseq was used to define the serum sEVs miRNA profile in IS patients and healthy controls (HC), and tMCAO mice and sham controls. Among the 1,444 and 1,373 miRNAs identified in human and mouse serum sEVs, the expression of 424 and 37 miRNAs was significantly altered in the IS patients and tMCAO mice, respectively (| Log2FC| ≥ 1, p < 0.01). Notably, five of the top 25 upregulated miRNAs in IS patients were brain-specific or enriched, including hsa-miR-9-3p, hsa-miR-124-3p, hsa-miR-143-3p, hsa-miR-98-5p, and hsa-miR-93-5p. Upregulation of these four miRNAs was further validated by qPCR. Nine of the 20 upregulated miRNAs in tMCAO mice were also brain-specific or enriched miRNAs. Temporal analysis indicated that the dynamics of mmu-miR-9-5p, mmu-miR-124-3p, mmu-miR-129-5p, and mmu-miR-433-3p were closely correlated with the evolution of ischemic brain injury, as their expression increased at 0.5 days after the onset of ischemia, peaked at day 1 or 3, and returned to normal levels at day 7 and 14. Notably, with the exceptions of mmu-miR-128-3p, the expression of the other eight miRNAs in the mouse serum sEVs was unaffected in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation model. Together, in this study, we provided a comprehensive view of the influences of IS on the serum sEVs miRNA profile of IS patients and tMCAO mice and demonstrated the increment of a set of brain-specific miRNAs in serum sEVs after acute cerebral ischemia, which could be promising candidates directly reflecting the ischemic brain injury.

Preparation and Mechanism of Bio-Based Sodium Alginate Fibers with Flame Retardant and Antibacterial Properties.

Flame retardant and antibacterial sodium alginate (SA) fiber were fabricated using the bio-based flame retardant of phytic acid and DL-arginine successively, and then the morphological structures, combustion behavior, thermal stability, and mechanical as well as antibacterial properties of SA fiber were investigated carefully. It is found that when the additional amount of PADL (reaction products of phytic acid and DL-arginine) in SA composite fiber is 20 wt%, its limiting oxygen index (LOI) is 40.0 ± 0.3%, and UL-94 is V-0 grade. The combustion behavior of composite fiber shows that PADL can effectively reduce combustion heat and promote carbon formation. Its peak of HRR (pkHRR) is 5.9% of pure SA fiber, and the residual carbon increases from 23.0 ± 0.1% to 44.2 ± 0.2%. At the same time, the density of the residual carbon increases gradually. PADL can promote SA to form expanded carbon with increasing density, and isolate the heat and volatilization of combustible gases. The guanidine group of DL-arginine can interact with the cell membrane to kill bacteria, and the antibacterial property of SA composite fiber is increased by 30%. This study provides a very ecological, safe, environmentally friendly and simple method to prepare flame retardant and antibacterial SA composite fiber with bio-based materials.

Smart Actuators Based on External Stimulus Response.

Smart actuators refer to integrated devices that are composed of smart and artificial materials, and can provide actuation and dampening capabilities in response to single/multi external stimuli (such as light, heat, magnetism, electricity, humidity, and chemical reactions). Due to their capability of dynamically sensing and interaction with complex surroundings, smart actuators have attracted increasing attention in different application fields, such as artificial muscles, smart textiles, smart sensors, and soft robots. Among these intelligent material, functional hydrogels with fiber structure are of great value in the manufacture of smart actuators. In this review, we summarized the recent advances in stimuli-responsive actuators based on functional materials. We emphasized the important role of functional nano-material-based additives in the preparation of the stimulus response materials, then analyzed the driving response medium, the preparation method, and the performance of different stimuli responses in detail. In addition, some challenges and future prospects of smart actuators are reported.

Preparation, filtration, and photocatalytic properties of PAN@g-C3N4 fibrous membranes by electrospinning.

Particulate matter and formaldehyde (HCHO) in closed indoor environments are seriously harmful to human health; hence, techniques for the improvement of air quality have attracted significant attention. PAN@g-C3N4 fibrous membranes with high efficiency, low resistance, and photocatalytic activity were prepared by electrospinning with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4), followed by the high-temperature polycondensation of melamine. The addition of g-C3N4 to the nanofibrous membrane effectively improved the filtration efficiency of PM2.5. When the amount of added g-C3N4 was 3 wt%, the filtration efficiency of PM2.5 was 99.76 ± 0.3%, the filtration efficiency was stable for 24 hours at a continuous high concentration, and the filtration cycle stability was good. As a photocatalytic material, g-C3N4 causes the photocatalytic degradation of HCHO, and thus, significantly improves the filtration efficiency of the nanofibrous membrane to HCHO. When the amount of added g-C3N4 was 3 wt%, the filtration efficiency of the nanofibrous membrane to HCHO reached 78.0 ± 1.8%. The mechanism of catalytic degradation showed that the PAN fibres first adsorbed and intercepted the HCHO molecules. Under simulated sunlight irradiation, the photogenerated holes generated by the g-C3N4 nanosheets in the fibres oxidised and decomposed the adsorbed HCHO molecules. This study has broad application potential for high-efficiency filters to improve indoor air quality.

Light Field Imaging Based Accurate Image Specular Highlight Removal.

Specular reflection removal is indispensable to many computer vision tasks. However, most existing methods fail or degrade in complex real scenarios for their individual drawbacks. Benefiting from the light field imaging technology, this paper proposes a novel and accurate approach to remove specularity and improve image quality. We first capture images with specularity by the light field camera (Lytro ILLUM). After accurately estimating the image depth, a simple and concise threshold strategy is adopted to cluster the specular pixels into "unsaturated" and "saturated" category. Finally, a color variance analysis of multiple views and a local color refinement are individually conducted on the two categories to recover diffuse color information. Experimental evaluation by comparison with existed methods based on our light field dataset together with Stanford light field archive verifies the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.