Biodegradable Antibacterial Polymeric Nanosystems: A New Hope to Cope with Multidrug‐Resistant Bacteria

The human society is faced with daunting threats from bacterial infections. Over decades, a variety of antibacterial polymeric nanosystems have exhibited great promise for the eradication of multidrug‐resistant bacteria and persistent biofilms by enhancing bacterial recognition and binding capabilities. In this Review, the “state‐of‐the‐art” biodegradable antibacterial polymeric nanosystems, which could respond to bacteria environments (e.g., acidity or bacterial enzymes) for controlled antibiotic release or multimodal antibacterial treatment, are summarized. The current antibacterial polymeric nanosystems can be categorized into antibiotic‐containing and intrinsic antibacterial nanosystems. The antibiotic‐containing polymeric nanosystems include antibiotic‐encapsulated nanocarriers (e.g., polymeric micelles, vesicles, nanogels) and antibiotic‐conjugated polymer nanosystems for the delivery of antibiotic drugs. On the other hand, the intrinsic antibacterial polymer nanosystems containing bactericidal moieties such as quaternary ammonium groups, phosphonium groups, polycations, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), and their synthetic mimics, are also described. The biodegradability of the nanosystems can be rendered by the incorporation of labile chemical linkages, such as carbonate, ester, amide, and phosphoester bonds. The design and synthesis of the degradable polymeric building blocks and their fabrications into nanosystems are also explicated, together with their plausible action mechanisms and potential biomedical applications. The perspectives of the current research in this field are also described.     

A Novel Design of Multi‐Mechanoresponsive and Mechanically Strong Hydrogels

A newly developed polyacrylamide‐co ‐methyl acrylate/spiropyran (SP) hydrogel crosslinked by SP mechanophore demonstrates multi‐stimuli‐responsive and mechanically strong properties. The hydrogels not only exhibit thermo‐, photo‐, and mechano‐induced color changes, but also achieve super‐strong mechanical properties (tensile stress of 1.45 MPa, tensile strain of ≈600%, and fracture energy of 7300 J m^?2). Due to a reversible structural transformation between spiropyran (a ring‐close) and merocyanine (a ring‐open) states, simple exposure of the hydrogels to white light can reverse color changes and restore mechanical properties. The new design approach for a new mechanoresponsive hydrogel is easily transformative to the development of other mechanophore‐based hydrogels for sensing, imaging, and display applications.     

Development and Characterization of Zr‐Based Multi‐Component Nanocomposite Coatings Prepared Using Single Alloying Target

Nanocomposite coatings comprising multiple phases on the nanoscale are increasingly used for automobile engine systems as they offer high thermal stability, high hardness, and low coefficient of friction. Since it is not easy to fabricate alloying targets, multiple targets have been used to prepare conventional nanocomposite coatings, resulting in the need for complex equipment and processes. Therefore, single alloying targets with homogeneous compositions and high toughness will simplify mass production of nanocomposite coatings. In this study, amorphous alloys are introduced to prepare the alloying target because of their homogeneous composition, good mechanical properties, and design rules that are similar to those for nanocomposites. Multi‐component alloying targets comprising Zr, Al, Mo, and Cu are successfully prepared by atomization and spark plasma sintering, both of which are powder metallurgical processes. The targets with amorphous structure are subsequently heat‐treated in a vacuum at ≈800 °C to crystallize the microstructure and improve the mechanical properties for sputtering. This study is the first report on modification of the fracture toughness of Zr‐based intermetallic compounds by changing the grain size. Improved fracture toughness of these compounds with a specific range of grain size is obtained by heat treatment of the amorphous target.

     

Near‐Infrared Light Responsive Multi‐Compartmental Hydrogel Particles Synthesized Through Droplets Assembly Induced by Superhydrophobic Surface

Light‐responsive hydrogel particles with multi‐compartmental structure are useful for applications in microreactors, drug delivery and tissue engineering because of their remotely‐triggerable releasing ability and combinational functionalities. The current methods of synthesizing multi‐compartmental hydrogel particles typically involve multi‐step interrupted gelation of polysaccharides or complicated microfluidic procedures with limited throughput. In this study, a two‐step sequential gelation process is developed to produce agarose/alginate double network multi‐compartmental hydrogel particles using droplets assemblies induced by superhydrophobic surface as templates. The agarose/alginate double network multi‐compartmental hydrogel particles can be formed with diverse hierarchical structures showing combinational functionalities. The synthesized hydrogel particles, when loaded with polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles that act as photothermal nanotransducers, are demonstrated to function as near‐infrared (NIR) light triggerable and deformation‐free hydrogel materials. Periodic NIR laser switching is applied to stimulate these hydrogel particles, and pulsatile release profiles are collected. Compared with massive reagents released from single‐compartmental hydrogel particles, more regulated release profiles of the multi‐compartmental hydrogel particles are observed.     

Inverse Sub‐structuring Method for Multi‐coordinate Rigidly Coupled Product Transport System based on a Novel Shearing Probe Technique

The inverse sub‐structuring method can predict the component‐level frequency response functions (FRFs) of product (critical component) for product transport system from only measured system‐level FRFs, facilitating the cushioning packaging design. However, the FRFs of the coupling interface between product and vehicle are usually of extreme difficulty to be measured due to the limited accessible space. To overcome this difficulty, the authors suggested a so‐called FRF probe technique method in the previous study, which may be more suitable for the single‐coordinate coupled system. In practice, most of the product transport systems should be treated as multi‐coordinate coupled system. The aim of this paper is to derive a new FRF‐based inverse sub‐structuring method for multi‐coordinate rigidly coupled product transport system and develop a new shearing probe technique to obtain the difficult‐to‐monitor FRFs at the coupling interface, which will be validated by a lumped mass model and finite element models, respectively, showing perfect agreement. Finally, the experiment on a physical prototype of multi‐coordinate rigidly coupled product transport system is performed to further check the feasibility of the application prospect of the shearing probe technique for inverse analysis of product transport system. The method proposed in this study will provide the packaging designers an alternative method to monitor the integrity of product transport system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transition‐Metal‐Doped p‐Type ZnO Nanoparticle‐Based Sensory Array for Instant Discrimination of Explosive Vapors

The development of portable, real‐time, and cheap platforms to monitor ultratrace levels of explosives is of great urgence and importance due to the threat of terrorism attacks and the need for homeland security. However, most of the previous chemiresistor sensors for explosive detection are suffering from limited responses and long response time. Here, a transition‐metal‐doping method is presented to remarkably promote the quantity of the surface defect states and to significantly reduce the charge transfer distance by creating a local charge reservoir layer. Thus, the sensor response is greatly enhanced and the response time is remarkably shortened. The resulting sensory array can not only detect military explosives, such as, TNT, DNT, PNT, PA, and RDX with high response, but also can fully distinguish some of the improvised explosive vapors, such as AN and urea, due to the huge response reaching to 100%. Furthermore, this sensory array can discriminate ppb‐level TNT and ppt‐level RDX from structurally similar and high‐concentration interfering aromatic gases in less than 12 s. Through comparison with the previously reported chemiresistor or Schottky sensors for explosive detection, the present transition‐metal‐doping method resulting ZnO sensor stands out and undoubtedly challenges the best.     

A Novel Multi‐hidden Semi‐Markov Model for Degradation State Identification and Remaining Useful Life Estimation

With the increase of product reliability, collecting time‐to‐failure data is becoming difficult, and degradation‐based method has gained popularity. In this paper, a novel multi‐hidden semi‐Markov model is proposed to identify degradation and estimate remaining useful life of a system. Multiple fused features are used to describe the degradation process so as to improve the effectiveness and accuracy. The similarities of the features are depicted by a new variable combined with forward and backward variables to reduce computational effort. The degradation state is identified using modified Viterbi algorithm, in which linear function is adopted to describe the contribution of each feature to the state recognition. Subsequently, the remaining useful life can be forecasted by backward recursive equations. A case study is presented, and the results demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.