Background Natural polymer extracted from squid pen, specifically beta-chitin, has been proven to be biocompatible, biosafe and biodegradable for use in fields of medicine, cosmetics, food, agriculture, and biomaterials. As one of the most abundant natural polymers that has these advantages, chitin and its derivatives are the optimal primary materials...

­Background Current glucose monitoring solutions include minimally invasive continuous blood glucose monitoring using implantable enzymatic sensors. However, biomacromolecule binding can cause foreign body reactions, and long-term implanted sensors can give rise to biocompatibility issues. These drawbacks make difficult the clinical promotion of...

­Background The stiffness of a material or a structure is of key importance in countless applications, with positive stiffness as a common property for bearing loads and transferring motions, zero (or quasi-zero) stiffness for vibration isolation and protection, and negative stiffness for fast switching between states, high-speed actuation, and...

Background Vibration is one of the main causes of performance degradation of precision instruments, vibration noise, failure of structural parts, and human discomfort. In particular, the human body is most sensitive to vibrations in low frequency range especially for the wounded and newborn babies in transit. Thus, effective low-frequency vibration...

The different materials comprising an electronic package expand at different rates under thermal stress. Differing expansion rates cause deformation among the individual layers contributing to an uneven strain across the whole package. More frequent failure occurs in the areas under greatest stress, so manufacturers would prefer a sensing technique...

3D-Soft Electrode for Li-Metal Batteries Background Due to their high theoretical current density, Li-Air, Li-sulfur, and Li-selenium batteries have attracted a great deal of attention. Their high energy density, which can be two orders of magnitude greater that current lithium ion batteries, makes them ideal for applications ranging from automotive...