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Natural silk fiber derived from the Bombyx mori (B. mori) silkworm has long been used as a luxury raw material in textile industry because of its shimmering appearance and durability, and as surgical suture for its high strength and flexibility. Regenerated silk fibroin, as the main protein extracted from the cocoons of the B. mori silkworm, recently has gained considerable attention due to its outstanding properties, including facile processability, superior biocompatibility, controllable biodegradation, and versatile functionalization. Tremendous effort has been made to fabricate silk fibroin into various promising materials with controlled structural and functional characteristics for advanced utilities in a multitude of biomedical applications, flexible optics, electronics devices, and filtration systems. Herein, reverse engineered silk fibroin extraction methods are reviewed, recent advances in extraction techniques are discussed. Fabrication methods of silk fibroin materials in various formats are also addressed in detail; in particular, progress in new fabrication technologies is presented. Attractive applications of silk fibroin-based materials are then summarized and highlighted. The challenges faced by current approaches in production of silk fibroin-based materials and future directions acquired for pushing these favorable materials further toward above mentioned applications are further elaborated.

Among the different nanostructures that have been demonstrated as promising materials for various applications, three–dimensional (3D) nanostructures have attracted significant attention as building blocks for constructing high-performance nanodevices because of their unusual mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, and magnetic properties arising from their novel size effects and abundant active catalytic/reactive sites due to the high specific surface area. Considerable research efforts have been devoted to designing, fabricating, and evaluating 3D nanostructures for applications, including structural composites, electronics, photonics, biomedical engineering, and energy. This review provides an overview of the nanofabrication strategies that have been developed to fabricate 3D functional architectures with exquisite control over their morphology at the nanoscale. The pros and cons of the typical synthetic methods and experimental protocols are reviewed and outlined. Future challenges of fabrication of 3D nanostructured materials are also discussed to further advance current nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Bidirectional controllable propagation of waterborne sound holds significant importance in developing multifunctional underwater acoustic and mechanical devices. However, the existing waterborne acoustic metasurfaces have rarely explored the bidirectional sound modulations. Here, a class of Janus waterborne acoustic metasurface, enabling two‐faced arbitrarily asymmetric wavefront manipulations is reported. A three‐degree‐of‐freedom mechanical system facilitated by acoustic‐structure interaction underwater is proposed to introduce bianisotropic responses of unit cells. Monolayer ultrathin Janus metasurface is inversely designed by utilizing a function‐structure integrated topology optimization framework. Distinct underwater acoustic functionalities, including axial and oblique focusing, beam splitting, and sound diffusion, are successfully demonstrated. Underwater experiments are further conducted to validate the concept of Janus metasurface. The good consistency between experimental and simulated results confirms the excellent two‐faced asymmetric acoustic focusing performance. The proposed Janus metasurface opens up a new dimension for designing advanced waterborne acoustic devices with two‐faced multifunctional wavefront manipulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the different nanostructures that have been demonstrated as promising materials for various applications, three–dimensional (3D) nanostructures have attracted significant attention as building blocks for constructing high-performance nanodevices because of their unusual mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, and magnetic properties arising from their novel size effects and abundant active catalytic/reactive sites due to the high specific surface area. Considerable research efforts have been devoted to designing, fabricating, and evaluating 3D nanostructures for applications, including structural composites, electronics, photonics, biomedical engineering, and energy. This review provides an overview of the nanofabrication strategies that have been developed to fabricate 3D functional architectures with exquisite control over their morphology at the nanoscale. The pros and cons of the typical synthetic methods and experimental protocols are reviewed and outlined. Future challenges of fabrication of 3D nanostructured materials are also discussed to further advance current nanoscience and nanotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Background: Chilling injury is a major disorder affecting the quality of tropical and subtropical vegetables during low temperature storage. Snap bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is sensitive to chilling injury. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the alleviating effects of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on chilling injury of snap bean. In addition, the related mechanisms were also detected from the perspective of the changes of antioxidant defense system., Experimental Approach: Snap beans were exposed to different volume fractions of 1-MCP. After 24 h of treatment, snap beans were stored at 4 °C for up to 14 days. Chilling injury index, electrolyte leakage, titratable acidity and total soluble solids were determined. Contents of chlorophyll, ascorbic acid and malondialdehyde were assessed. The total antioxidant capacity, Fe(II) ion chelating capacity, scavenging capacities on free radicals and activities of antioxidant enzymes were detected. Total phenol content and activities of related metabolic enzymes were also determined., Results and Conclusions: 1-MCP treatment reduced chilling injury index, electrolyte leakage rate and malondialdehyde content of snap beans. The amounts of total soluble solids, titratable acid, ascorbic acid and total chlorophyll in 1-MCP-treated snap beans were significantly higher than those of control. The snap beans treated with 1-MCP showed stronger total antioxidant capacity and metal chelating activity. The 1-MCP treatment enhanced scavenging effects of snap beans on superoxide, hydroxyl and 1,1-diphenyl-2-trinitrophenylhydrazine radicals. The activities of peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase in 1-MCP-treated group were higher than of control. The treatment also enhanced the accumulation of phenolic compounds in snap beans by regulating the activities of phenol-metabolizing enzymes such as shikimate dehydrogenase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase enzyme, cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase and polyphenol oxidase. In conclusion, with the mechanism that involves the activation of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems, 1-MCP has the ability to avoid chilling injury of snap bean., Novelty and Scientific Contribution: This study gives insights into whether 1-MCP can regulate postharvest cold resistance in vegetables by enhancing the enzymatic antioxidant system and inducing the accumulation of non-enzymatic antioxidants. Considering the results, 1-MCP treatment could be an effective method to alleviate postharvest chilling injury of snap beans during low temperature storage., Competing Interests: CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Authors.)