11 December 2016
Nature-based rehabilitation (NBR) has convincing support in research, yet the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The present study sought to increase understanding of the role of soundscapes in NBR, an aspect paid little attention thus f...
Soft-tissue sarcomas constitute a fascinating group of diseases [...]
Organogels are a very diverse and fascinating class of soft materials that, over the last 30 years, have evolved to be one of the most interesting subjects in materials science [...]
Block copolymers and block-copolymer-containing blends represent a fascinating class of soft matter and can self-assemble in a variety of ordered structures on the mesoscale [...]
We introduce and shortly summarize a variety of more recent aspects of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs), which have drawn the attention of the liquid crystal and soft matter community and have recently led to an increasing number of groups studying t...
A supramolecular gel is a fascinating combination of flexibility and orderliness. While the supramolecular nature of crosslinking contributes towards the adaptivity and the reversibility of the system, orderliness at the molecular level amplifies the...
Stretchable electronics represent a new generation of electronics that utilize soft, deformable elastomers as the substrate or matrix instead of the traditional rigid printed circuit boards. As the most essential component of stretchable electronics,...
The study of bio-inspired structures and their reproduction has always fascinated humans. The advent of soft robotics, thanks to soft materials, has enabled considerable progress in this field. Over the years, polyps, worms, cockroaches, jellyfish, a...
Liquid crystals represent a fascinating intermediate state of matter, with dynamic yet organized molecular features and untapped opportunities in sensing. Several works report the use of liquid crystal droplets formed by microfluidics and stabilized...
Food adulteration consists of changing the original structure of a food, and so, by its definition, it is a process not admitted by law. Adulterations can not only have commercial consequences, but also hygienic and nutritional ones, and in some case...
In the quest to develop large-area soft sensors, we can look to nature for many examples. Spiderwebs show many fascinating properties that we can seek to understand and replicate in order to develop large-area, soft, and deformable sensing structures...
Liquid crystals, which have both liquid and solid properties, inevitably exhibit fluctuations. Some frustrated liquid-crystalline phases with a hierarchical structure, such as cybotactic nematic, modulated smectic, and bicontinuous cubic phases, are...
In this pilot study, we investigate the psychological and attentional impact of biophilic urban interventions using an immersive virtual reality (VR) framework integrated with real-time eye-tracking. Specifically, it examines whether bio-esthetic enh...
Ion current rectification (ICR) is the ratio of ion current by forward bias to backward bias and is a critical indicator of diode performance. In previous studies, there have been many attempts to improve the performance of this ICR, but there is the...
The geometric shape, symmetry, and topology of colloidal particles often allow for controlling colloidal phase behavior and physical properties of these soft matter systems. In liquid crystalline dispersions, colloidal particles with low symmetry and...
Diterpenoid alkaloids are natural compounds having complex structural features with many stereo-centres originating from the amination of natural tetracyclic diterpenes and produced primarily from plants in the Aconitum, Delphinium, Consolida genera....
Controlled, reversible attachment is widely spread throughout the animal kingdom: from ticks to tree frogs, whose weights span from 2 mg to 200 g, and from geckos to mosquitoes, who stick under vastly different situations, such as quickly climbing tr...
Peptide-based biomimetic underwater adhesives are emerging candidates for understanding the adhesion mechanism of natural proteins secreted by sessile organisms. However, there is a grand challenge in the functional recapitulation of the on-site inte...
Fingertip response to trauma represents a fascinating example of tissue regeneration. Regeneration derives from proliferative mesenchymal cells (blastema) that subsequently differentiate into soft and skeletal tissues. Clinically, conservative treatm...
The main focus of this review is to introduce readers to the fascinating class of lipid molecules known as norsteroids, exploring their distribution across various biotopes and their biological activities. The review provides an in-depth analysis of...
Today, MXenes and their composites have shown attractive capabilities in numerous fields of electronics, co-catalysis/photocatalysis, sensing/imaging, batteries/supercapacitors, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, tissue engineering/regener...
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-dibutyl adipate (DBA) gels are a fascinating dielectric elastomer actuator showing promise in soft robotics. When actuated with high voltages, the gel deforms towards the anode. A recent application of PVC gels in electrohydr...