It is a challenge to manufacture pressure‐sensing materials that possess flexibility, high sensitivity, large‐area compliance, and capability to detect both tiny and large motions for the development of artificial intelligence products. Herein, a very simple and low‐cost approach is proposed to fabricate versatile pressure sensors based on microcrack‐designed carbon black (CB)@polyurethane (PU) sponges via natural polymer‐mediated water‐based layer‐by‐layer assembly. These sensors are capable of satisfying the requirements of ultrasmall as well as large motion monitoring. The versatility of these sensors benefits from two aspects: microcrack junction sensing mechanism for tiny motion detecting (91 Pa pressure, 0.2% strain) inspired by the spider sensory system and compressive contact of CB@PU conductive backbones for large motion monitoring (16.4 kPa pressure, 60% strain). Furthermore, these sensors exhibit excellent flexibility, fast response times (<20 ms), as well as good reproducibility over 50 000 cycles. This study also demonstrates the versatility of these sensors for various applications, ranging from speech recognition, health monitoring, bodily motion detection to artificial electronic skin. The desirable comprehensive performance of our sensors, which is comparable to the recently reported pressure‐sensing devices, together with their significant advantages of low‐cost, easy fabrication, especially versatility, makes them attractive in the future of artificial intelligence.

Strain sensors play an important role in the next generation of artificially intelligent products. However, it is difficult to achieve a good balance between the desirable performance and the easy-to-produce requirement of strain sensors. In this work, we proposed a simple, cost-efficient, and large-area compliant strategy for fabricating highly sensitive strain sensor by coating a polyurethane (PU) yarn with an ultrathin, elastic, and robust conductive polymer composite (CPC) layer consisting of carbon black and natural rubber. This CPC@PU yarn strain sensor exhibited high sensitivity with a gauge factor of 39 and detection limit of 0.1% strain. The elasticity and robustness of the CPC layer endowed the sensor with good reproducibility over 10,000 cycles and excellent wash- and corrosion-resistance. We confirmed the applicability of our strain sensor in monitoring tiny human motions. The results indicated that tiny normal physiological activities (including pronunciation, pulse, expression, swallowing, coughing, etc.) could be monitored using this CPC@PU sensor in real time. In particular, the pronunciation could be well parsed from the recorded delicate speech patterns, and the emotions of laughing and crying could be detected and distinguished using this sensor. Moreover, this CPC@PU strain-sensitive yarn could be woven into textiles to produce functional electronic fabrics. The high sensitivity and washing durability of this CPC@PU yarn strain sensor, together with its low-cost, simplicity, and environmental friendliness in fabrication, open up new opportunities for cost-efficient fabrication of high performance strain sensing devices.

A 3D graphene nanoplatelets/reduced graphene oxide foam/epoxy nanocomposite exhibits superior electromagnetic interference shielding and excellent thermal conductivity.

Cellulose aerogels with low density, high mechanical strength, and low thermal conductivity are promising candidates for environmentally friendly heat insulating materials. The application of cellulose aerogels as heat insulators in building and domestic appliances, however, is hampered by their highly flammable characteristics. In this work, flame retardant cellulose aerogels were fabricated from waste cotton fabrics by in situ synthesis of magnesium hydroxide nanoparticles (MH NPs) in cellulose gel nanostructures, followed by freeze-drying. Our results demonstrated that the threedimensionally nanoporous cellulose gel prepared from the NaOH/urea solution could serve as scaffold/template for the nonagglomerated growth of MH NPs. The prepared hybridized cellulose aerogels showed excellent flame retardancy, which could extinguish within 40 s. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity of the composite aerogel increased moderately from 0.056 to 0.081 W m −1 k −1 as the specific surface area decreased slightly from 38.8 to 37.6 cm 2 g −1 , which indicated that the excellent heat insulating performance of cellulose aerogel was maintained. Because the concepts of the process are simple and biomass wastes are sustainable and readily available at low cost, the present approach is suitable for industrial scale production and has great potential in the future of green building materials.

CsPbX (X = Cl, Br, I) perovskite quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as competitive candidate luminescent materials in the photoelectric fields due to their superior luminescence properties. However, the major drawback such as poor resistance to temperature, moisture, and irradiation of light, especially for the red QDs with I, hinders their practical applications. Herein, we synthesized Mn-doped CsPbCl embedded in the cage of zeolite-Y as a new orange-red phosphor for the white light-emitting diode (WLED). The composites have significantly improved resistance to both elevated temperature and water over the bare Mn-doped QDs. The former exhibits little degradation whereas the latter shows apparent decline upon the irradiation of lights in the orange LED devices, which are fabricated by employing each material as a color-conversion phosphor coated on a 365 nm UV chip. A WLED is also achieved with a 365 nm UV chip coated with a CsPb(Cl,Br)-Y blue phosphor and a CsPbMnCl-Y orange phosphor. The device possesses a Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage coordinate of (0.34, 0.36), a correlated color temperature of 5336 K and a color rendering index of 81.

Electronic sensors capable of capturing mechanical deformation are highly desirable for the next generation of artificial intelligence products. However, it remains a challenge to prepare self-healing, highly sensitive, and cost-efficient sensors for both tiny and large human motion monitoring. Here, a new kind of self-healing, sensitive, and versatile strain sensors has been developed by combining metal-ligand chemistry with hierarchical structure design. Specifically, a self-healing and nanostructured conductive layer is deposited onto a self-healing elastomer substrate cross-linked by metal-ligand coordinate bonds, forming a hierarchically structured sensor. The resultant sensors exhibit high sensitivity, low detection limit (0.05% strain), remarkable self-healing capability, as well as excellent reproducibility. Notably, the self-healed sensors are still capable to precisely capture not only tiny physiological activities (such as speech, swallowing, and coughing) but also large human motions (finger and neck bending, touching). Moreover, harsh treatments, including bending over 50000 times and mechanical washing, could not influence the sensitivity and stability of the self-healed sensors in human motion monitoring. This proposed strategy via alliance of metal-ligand chemistry and hierarchical structure design represents a general approach to manufacturing self-healing, robust sensors, and other electronic devices.

␥-Secretase is a proteolytic membrane complex that processes a variety of substrates including the amyloid precursor protein and the Notch receptor. Earlier we showed that one of the components of this complex, nicastrin (NCT), functions as a receptor for ␥-secretase substrates. A recent report challenged this, arguing instead that the Glu-333 residue of NCT predicted to participate in substrate recognition only participates in ␥-secretase complex maturation and not in activity per se. Here, we present evidence that Glu-333 directly participates in ␥-secretase activity. By normalizing to the active pool of ␥-secretase with two separate methods, we establish that ␥-secretase complexes containing NCT-E333A are indeed deficient in intrinsic activity. We also demonstrate that the NCT-E333A mutant is deficient in its binding to substrates. Moreover, we find that the cleavage of substrates by ␥-secretase activity requires a free N-terminal amine but no minimal length of the extracellular N-terminal stub. Taken together, these studies provide further evidence supporting the role of NCT in substrate recognition. Finally, because ␥-secretase cleaves itself during its maturation and because NCT-E333A also shows defects in ␥-secretase complex maturation, we present a model whereby Glu-333 can serve a dual role via similar mechanisms in the recruitment of both Type 1 membrane proteins for activity and the presenilin intracellular loop during complex maturation.The brains of Alzheimer disease patients are characterized by dense neuritic plaques that consist of the insoluble ␤-amyloid peptide (A␤) 2 and neurons containing neurofibrillary tangles of the Tau protein (1, 2). The A␤ peptide is produced via the sequential proteolysis of APP by ␤-and ␥-secretase (3).␥-secretase is a multisubunit complex consisting of at least four proteins: presenilin (PS), NCT, APH-1, and PEN-2, all of which are necessary and sufficient for activity (4 -9). The formation of the ␥-secretase complex is tightly controlled, with an ordered assembly of subunits coupled to spatial restriction (10). It is believed that the last step of the complicated ␥-secretase maturation and activation process involves in cis endoproteolysis of the PS holoprotein (11-13). It is this form of ␥-secretase with PS in its N-and C-terminal fragments (NTF and CTF, respectively) that represents the fully mature, proteolytically active enzyme.␥-Secretase is a unique protease that cleaves within the lipid bilayer a large number of Type 1 single transmembrane-spanning proteins that vary widely in their sequence and size (14 -16). In a previous report, we demonstrated that NCT functions as a substrate receptor for ␥-secretase (4). In that report, we showed that NCT recruits substrates that have had their large extracellular domains first removed by an upstream protease in a process termed "ectodomain shedding." This process generates a new, short extracellular stub with a free N terminus, which is required for proteolysis by ␥-secretase. We also established that Glu-333 of NCT pa...

Diets rich in whole grain (WG) cereals bring lower disease risks compared with refined grain-based diets. We investigated the effects of polished rice (PR), refined wheat (RW), unpolished rice (UPR), and whole wheat (WW) on short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and gut microbiota in ileal, cecal, and colonic digesta of normal rats. Animals fed with UPR and WW diets exhibited higher total SCFA in cecal and colonic digesta compared with those fed with PR and RW diets. Wheat diets contributed higher total SCFA than rice diets. In cecal and colonic digesta, animals fed with UPR and WW diets demonstrated higher acetate and butyrate contents than those given PR and RW. Firmicutes were the dominant eumycota in rat ileum digesta (>92% abundance). Cecal and colonic digesta were dominated by Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, and Bacteroidetes. UPR and WW affected gut microbiota, decreasing the proportion of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. SMB53, Lactobacillus, and Faecalibacterium were the main bacterial genera in ileal digesta. Akkermansia was highest in cecal and colonic digesta. In the colonic digesta of rats, the relative abundance of Akkermansia in rats on wheat diets was higher than that in rats on rice diets ( P < 0.05). Thus, UPR and WW could modulate gut microbiota composition and increase the SCFA concentration. Wheat diet was superior to rice diet in terms of intestinal microbiota adjustment.