Recent Development of Jumping Motions Based on Soft Actuators

Drawing inspiration from the jumping motions of living creatures in nature, jumping robots have emerged as a promising research field over the past few decades due to great application potential in interstellar exploration, military reconnaissance, and life rescue missions. Early reviews mainly focused on jumping robots made of lightweight and rigid materials with mechanical components, concentrating on jumping control and stability. Herein, attention is paid to the jumping mechanisms of soft actuators assembled from various soft smarting materials and powered by different stimulus sources. The challenges and prospects of soft jumping actuators are also discussed. It is hoped that this review will contribute to the further development of soft jumping actuators and broaden their practical applications.     

Construction of VS2/VOx Heterostructure via Hydrolysis-Oxidation Coupling Reaction with Superior Sodium Storage Properties

Heterostructure engineering is one of the most promising modification strategies for reinforcing Na⁺ storage of transition metal sulfides. Herein, based on the spontaneous hydrolysis-oxidation coupling reaction of transition metal sulfides in aqueous media, a VO_x layer is induced and formed on the surface of VS₂, realizing tight combination of VS₂ and VO_x at the nanoscale and constructing homologous VS₂/VO_x heterostructure. Benefiting from the built-in electric field at the heterointerfaces, high chemical stability of VO_x, and high electrical conductivity of VS₂, the obtained VS₂/VO_x electrode exhibits superior cycling stability and rate properties. In particular, the VS₂/VO_x anode shows a high capacity of 878.2 mAh g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹. It also exhibits long cycling life (721.6 mAh g⁻¹ capacity retained after 1000 cycles at 2 A g⁻¹) and ultrahigh rate property (up to 654.8 mAh g⁻¹ at 10 A g⁻¹). Density functional theory calculations show that the formation of heterostructures reduces the activation energy for Na⁺ migration and increases the electrical conductivity of the material, which accelerates the ion/electron transfer and improves the reaction kinetics of the VS₂/VO_x electrode.     

An Apoptotic Body-based Vehicle with Navigation for Photothermal-Immunotherapy by Precise Delivery and Tumor Microenvironment Regulation

Tumor precision therapy and preventing tumor recurrence and metastasis are the main challenges to tumor eradication. Herein, an apoptotic body-based vehicle with imaging navigation is developed for precise tumor delivery and photothermal-immunotherapy by IR820-conjugated apoptotic body loaded with R848 nanoparticles. The apoptotic body serves as ammunition stores as well as vehicle drive engines, while IR820 acts as a fluorescence imaging navigation and photothermal controlling system. The apoptotic body vehicle can deliver the ammunition to tumor and achieve deep penetration by macrophage-hitchhiking. Fluorescence imaging navigation opens a control window for photothermal treatment, followed by photothermal triggering of in situ vaccine formation. Further, CD47 antibody loaded hydrogel strengthens innate and adaptive immunity, simultaneously the polarization of macrophages regulates the immunosuppressive microenvironment to further promote the combined antitumor immunotherapy. With breast tumor (4T1)-bearing mice model, the apoptotic body vehicle performs excellent therapeutic efficacy for primary tumor, distant tumor, tumor metastasis, and recurrence prevention.     

C-Shaped Cartilage Development Using Wharton's Jelly-Derived Hydrogels to Assemble a Highly Biomimetic Neotrachea for use in Circumferential Tracheal Reconstruction

A highly biomimetic neotrachea with C-shaped cartilage rings has promising clinical applications in the treatment of circumferential tracheal defects (CTDs) owing to its structure and physiological function. However, to date, most fabricated tracheal cartilages are O-shaped. In this study, finite element analysis demonstrates C-shaped cartilage rings that exhibit better compliance than O-shaped. Hydrogel is developed using methacryloyl-modified decellularized Wharton's jelly matrix (DWJMA) for the regeneration of C-shaped cartilage rings. This novel hydrogel possesses adjustable physicochemical properties and favorable cytocompatibility. When loaded with chondrocytes, DWJMA hydrogels support the optimal cartilage regeneration both in vitro and in vivo. More importantly, a highly biomimetic neotrachea simultaneously simulating the structural and physiological properties of the normal trachea is regenerated via modular assembly of several individual C-shaped cartilage rings. The results demonstrate the highly biomimetic neotrachea have better patency (88.6 ± 6.1% vs 74.4 ± 9.4%, p < 0.05), improve the survival rate, alleviate weight loss and mucoid impaction, than its O-shaped counterpart when used for the treatment of CTDs in a rabbit model. Therefore, this study proposes a novel hydrogel for the regeneration of C-shaped cartilage and provides new insights into the treatment of CTDs using a highly biomimetic neotrachea with C-shaped cartilage rings.     

Spring-Like Ammonium Salt Assisting Stress Release for Low-Temperature Deposited FAPbI3 Films Toward Flexible Photovoltaic Application

The substrates of conventional flexible perovskite solar cells (FPSCs) are thermoplastic polymer material polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), which will deform during high temperature annealing process. In addition, lead iodide (PbI₂) permanently formed and the substrate undergoes reversible deformation from 20 °C to 200 °C and back to 20 °C. Therefore, to balance the substrate supporting capacity and the crystalline quality of narrow band gap α-phase formamidinium lead iodide (α-FAPbI₃), an annealing process of 120 °C for 30 minutes is determined. Additionally, there will also be a large number of gaps and lattice strain at the perovskite grain boundaries during the annealing process as the FAPbI₃ phase transition is accompanied by much lattice shrinkage. As a result, 1,6-hexanediammonium diiodide (HADI) is chosen to passivate the defects and release the stress of perovskite film. Therefore, a recorded 1.4% extended stretch rate of the flexible film is attained. Finally, the champion PCE of 21.14% under AM 1.5G and 31.52% under 1062 lux is achieved after HADI treatment, accompanied by a better long-term and mechanical stability. This study provides annealing process optimization and stress relief strategies for the further development of narrow band gap FPSCs.     

Plasma Enhanced Lithium Coupled with Cobalt Fibers Arrays for Advanced Energy Storage

Construction of high efficiency and stable Li metal anodes is extremely vital to the breakthrough of Li metal batteries. In this study, for the first time, groundbreaking in situ plasma interphase engineering is reported to construct high-quality lithium halides-dominated solid electrolyte interphase layer on Li metal to stabilize & protect the anode. Typically, SF₆ plasma-induced sulfured and fluorinated interphase (SFI) is composed of LiF and Li₂S, interwoven with each other to form a consecutive solid electrolyte interphase. Simultaneously, brand-new vertical Co fibers (diameter: ≈5 µm) scaffold is designed via a facile magnetic-field-assisted hydrothermal method to collaborate with plasma-enhanced Li metal anodes (SFI@Li/Co). The Co fibers scaffold accommodates active Li with mechanical integrity and decreases local current density with good lithiophilicity and low geometric tortuosity, supported by DFT calculations and COMSOL Multiphysics simulation. Consequently, the assembled symmetric cells with SFI@Li/Co anodes exhibit superior stability over 525 h with a small voltage hysteresis (125 mV at 5 mA cm⁻²) and improved Coulombic efficiency (99.7%), much better than the counterparts. Enhanced electrochemical performance is also demonstrated in full cells with commercial cathodes and SFI@Li/Co anode. The research offers a new route to develop advanced alkali metal anodes for energy storage.     

Antioxidant High-Conductivity Copper Pastes Based on Core–Shell Copper Nanoparticles for Flexible Printed Electronics

As a nontoxic and cost-effective material, copper pastes have attracted great attention in both academia and industry. However, achieving the long-term stability of copper pastes remains challenging due to their susceptibility to oxidation. Therefore, stable copper nanoparticles with a Cu(0)–Cu(I) core–shell structure containing a surface passivation layer of formate ions-involved Cu(I) coordination polymers are developed. Based on the self-reducing nature of the passivation layer, the nanoparticle-based copper pastes can be sintered in <1 min, showing high electrical conductivity (220 000 S cm⁻¹), mechanical flexibility, and long-term stability after sintering. The excellent properties of the developed copper pastes are even comparable with the ones of silver pastes. These stable copper pastes have broad applications in printed electronics (e.g., glucose sensors, RFID tags, and electromagnetic shielding films), showing great potential in the fabrication of flexible printed electronics.     

隐蔽图像后门攻击

目的 图像后门攻击是一种经典的对抗性攻击形式,后门攻击使被攻击的深度模型在正常情况下表现良好,而当隐藏的后门被预设的触发器激活时就会出现恶性结果。现有的后门攻击开始转向为有毒样本分配干净标签或在有毒数据中隐蔽触发器以对抗人类检查,但这些方法在视觉监督下很难同时具备这两种安全特性,并且它们的触发器可以很容易地通过统计分析检测出来。因此,提出了一种隐蔽有效的图像后门攻击方法。方法 首先通过信息隐藏技术隐蔽图像后门触发,使标签正确的中毒图像样本(标签不可感知性)和相应的干净图像样本看起来几乎相同(图像不可感知性)。其次,设计了一种全新的后门攻击范式,其中毒的源图像类别同时也是目标类。提出的后门攻击方法不仅视觉上是隐蔽的,同时能抵御经典的后门防御方法(统计不可感知性)。结果 为了验证方法的有效性与隐蔽性,在ImageN et、MNIST、CIFAR-10数据集上与其他3种方法进行了对比实验。实验结果表明,在3个数据集上,原始干净样本分类准确率下降均不到1%,中毒样本分类准确率都超过94%,并具备最好的图像视觉效果。另外,验证了所提出的触发器临时注入的任意图像样本都可以发起有效的后门攻击。结论 ...     

面向多模态自监督特征融合的音视频对抗对比学习

目的 同一视频中的视觉与听觉是两个共生模态,二者相辅相成,同时发生,从而形成一种自监督模式。随着对比学习在视觉领域取得很好的效果,将对比学习这一自监督表示学习范式应用于音视频多模态领域引起了研究人员的极大兴趣。本文专注于构建一个高效的音视频负样本空间,提高对比学习的音视频特征融合能力。方法 提出了面向多模态自监督特征融合的音视频对抗对比学习方法：1)创新性地引入了视觉、听觉对抗性负样本集合来构建音视频负样本空间;2)在模态间与模态内进行对抗对比学习,使得音视频负样本空间中的视觉和听觉对抗性负样本可以不断跟踪难以区分的视听觉样本,有效地促进了音视频自监督特征融合。在上述两点基础上,进一步简化了音视频对抗对比学习框架。结果 本文方法在Kinetics-400数据集的子集上进行训练,得到音视频特征。这一音视频特征用于指导动作识别和音频分类任务,取得了很好的效果。具体来说,在动作识别数据集UCF-101和HMDB-51(human metabolome database)上,本文方法相较于Cross-AVID(cross-audio visual instance discrimination...     

引入分组注意力的医学图像分割模型

目的 卷积神经网络结合U-Net架构的深度学习方法广泛应用于各种医学图像处理中,取得了良好的效果,特别是在局部特征提取上表现出色,但由于卷积操作本身固有的局部性,导致其在全局信息获取上表现不佳。而基于Transformer的方法具有较好的全局建模能力,但在局部特征提取方面不如卷积神经网络。为充分融合两种方法各自的优点,提出一种基于分组注意力的医学图像分割模型（medical image segmentation module based on group attention,GAU-Net）。方法 利用注意力机制,设计了一个同时集成了Swin Transformer和卷积神经网络的分组注意力模块,并嵌入网络编码器中,使网络能够高效地对图像的全局和局部重要特征进行提取和融合;在注意力计算方式上,通过特征分组的方式,在同一尺度特征内,同时进行不同的注意力计算,进一步提高网络提取语义信息的多样性;将提取的特征通过上采样恢复到原图尺寸,进行像素分类,得到最终的分割结果。结果 在Synapse多器官分割数据集和ACDC （automated cardiac diagnosis challenge）数据集上进行了相关实验验证。在Synapse数据集中,Dice值为82.93%,HD（Hausdorff distance）值为12.32%,相较于排名第2的方法,Dice值提高了0.97%,HD值降低了5.88%;在ACDC数据集中,Dice值为91.34%,相较于排名第2的方法提高了0.48%。结论 本文提出的医学图像分割模型有效地融合了Transformer和卷积神经网络各自的优势,提高了医学图像分割结果的精确度。