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We investigated the potential correlation between miR‐223 and NAcHT, LRR, and PYd domain‐containing protein 3 (NLRP3) in the context of renal ischemia‐reperfusion injury (RIRI), which is a leading cause of acute renal failure with significant mortality rates. Additionally, miR‐223 has been implicated in renal inflammation, further highlighting its relevance to this study. C57BL/6 male mice were used as RIRI models. After successful modeling, pathological examinations and serum creatinine and miR‐223 levels were tested. Pro‐inflammatory cytokine (IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐8, NLPR3, TLR4) expression was detected in mice by western blot (kidney tissue) and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (serum). HK‐2 cells were used for in vitro experiments. A hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) model was used, and miR‐223 and pro‐inflammatory cytokine levels were detected using PCR and western blot assays, respectively. A dual‐luciferase reporter assay was conducted to confirm the binding of miR‐223 to NLPR3. Next, NLRP3 was knocked down to determine whether the anti‐inflammatory function of miR‐223 is dependent on NLRP3. MiR‐223 expression was lower in RIRI mice than in the sham operation group. The level of miR‐223 negatively correlated with serum creatinine levels and the severity of tubule injury. Increased proinflammatory cytokine levels in RIRI mice were observed. In vitro, miR‐223 alleviated the inflammatory response in H/R treated cells by inhibiting proinflammatory cytokines. Dual‐luciferase reporter and western blot assays confirmed the binding of miR‐223 to NLRP3. NLRP3 knockdown reversed the anti‐inflammatory effects of miR‐223 in HK‐2 cells. MiR‐223 plays an anti‐inflammatory role in RIRI by targeting NLRP3 to repress pro‐inflammatory factors.

Tactile sensors with both temperature- and pressure-responsive capabilities are critical to enabling future smart artificial intelligence. These sensors can mimic haptic functions of human skin and inevitably suffer from tensile deformation during operation. However, almost all actual multifunctional tactile sensors are either nonstretchable or the sensing signals interfere with each other when stretched. Herein, we propose a stretchable and self-powered temperature–pressure dual functional sensor based on thermogalvanic hydrogels. The sensor operates properly under stretching, which relies on the thermogalvanic effect and constant elastic modulus of hydrogels. The thermogalvanic hydrogel elastomer exhibits an equivalent Seebeck coefficient of −1.21 mV K–1and a pressure sensitivity of 0.056 kPa–1. Combined with unit array integration, the multifunctional sensor can be used for accurately recording tactile information on human skin and spatial perception. This work provides a conceptual framework and systematic design for stretchable artificial skin, interactive wearables, and smart robots.

Efficient heat removal and recovery are two conflicting processes that are difficult to achieve simultaneously. Here, in this work, we pave a new way to achieve this through the use of a smart thermogalvanic hydrogel film, in which the ions and water undergo two separate thermodynamic cycles: thermogalvanic reaction and water-to-vapor phase transition. When the hydrogel is attached to a heat source, it can achieve efficient evaporative cooling while simultaneously converting a portion of the waste heat into electricity. Moreover, the hydrogel can absorb water from the surrounding air to regenerate its water content later on. This reversibility can be finely designed. As an applicative demonstration, the hydrogel film with a thickness of 2 mm was attached to a cell phone battery while operating. It successfully decreased the temperature of the battery by 20 °C and retrieved electricity of 5 μW at the discharging rate of 2.2 C.

Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) has found various applications in civil engineering. To enhance the flexural performance of EPC, two kinds of short natural fibers with high specific strength (sisal fibers and ramie fibers) have been incorporated into EPC. The results of mechanical tests show that a small loading of natural fibers (0.36 vol%) can significantly increase the flexural strength of EPC by 25.3% (ramie fibers) or 10.4% (sisal fibers). This enhancement is achieved without any sacrifice of compressive strength of EPC. The reinforcing effects of short natural fibers on the flexural properties and compressive properties of EPC decrease with further increase in fiber content, due to the insufficient wetting of fibers by epoxy resin which results in poor interfacial bonding. The reinforcing mechanisms of short natural fibers are explored according to the observation of fracture surfaces and micromechanical modelling. It is found that the parallel model based on the rule of mixture can be a good approximation to describe the improvement in flexural strength of the short natural fiber reinforced EPC at low fiber volume fractions.

Graphical Abstract:

Camouflage techniques are an integral part of the natural world. Despite having developed many technological approaches, creating a solution which can simultaneously modulate its visible and infrared appearance remains a great challenge and highly desired. We present a moisture assisted photo-engineered textile that visually blends objects into the surroundings both in the visible and infrared spectrum. In our solution, moisture content inside has been rendered sensitive to ambient temperature variations, allowing the textile to self-adaptively adjust its thermal emissivity in a wide range of 0.8 to 0.27 with the temperature varying from 25.8 °C to 67.4 °C. Its visible appearance can also be tuned using an interferometric structural color filter to deliver a broad range of colors. The moisture assisted photo-engineered textile features a low-cost, biocompatible, flexible, lightweight and convenient approach for visible and self-adaptive infrared dual camouflage.