Pancreatic islet transplantation has been validated as a valuable therapy for type 1 diabetes mellitus patients with exhausted insulin treatment. However, this therapy remains limited by the shortage of donor and the requirement of lifelong immunosuppression. Islet encapsulation, as an available bioartificial pancreas (BAP), represents a promising approach to enable protecting islet grafts without or with minimal immunosuppression and possibly expanding the donor pool. To develop a clinically implantable BAP, some key aspects need to be taken into account: encapsulation material, capsule design, and implant site. Among them, the implant site exerts an important influence on the engraftment, stability, and biocompatibility of implanted BAP. Currently, an optimal site for encapsulated islet transplantation may include sufficient capacity to host large graft volumes, portal drainage, ease of access using safe and reproducible procedure, adequate blood/oxygen supply, minimal immune/inflammatory reaction, pliable for noninvasive imaging and biopsy, and potential of local microenvironment manipulation or bioengineering. Varying degrees of success have been confirmed with the utilization of liver or extrahepatic sites in an experimental or preclinical setting. However, the ideal implant site remains to be further engineered or selected for the widespread application of encapsulated islet transplantation.

This study fabricated flexible radar-absorbing knitted compound materials by weft knitting and blending ferromagnetic nickel micron-fibers and cotton fiber into structures with a concave–convex surface, including rhombic, mat, wavy, and leno stitches. The electromagnetic wave-absorbing capability and mechanical properties of the flexible radar-absorbing knitted compound materials were evaluated. The results showed that the rhombic, mat, and wavy stitches displayed high mechanical properties with high bursting strength and there were no significant differences among them. The rhombic stitch flexible radar-absorbing knitted compound material with a ferromagnetic nickel micron-fiber content of 14% had a maximum bandwidth of 13 GHz and achieved a minimum reflectance of −20 dB at 7 GHz, which was 150% that of mat fabric, and 200% that of wavy fabric and leno fabric. This was ascribed to the fact that the concave–convex surface with regular diamond-shaped block improved the dispersion of the electromagnetic wave, weakened the wave strength, and increased the interference. Therefore, the rhombic stitch flexible radar-absorbing knitted compound material was the most suitable for flexible radar-absorbing material in this study. The development of flexible radar-absorbing materials, by combining aerospace technology, military technology and textile technology, is important for the application in stealth of aircraft and weapons.

Preparation of protoplasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris was achieved by using iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). The protoplasts were characterized by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy, revealing cell wall breakage. In addition, the as-prepared protoplasts allowed regeneration, DNA extraction, and transformation. These results support the conviction that Fe 3 O 4 MNPs exhibit an intrinsic yeast lytic activity. The demonstration of protoplast generation can be useful in providing a feasible platform for genetic manipulation of yeasts and opens doors for yeast-based biotechnological applications. Moreover, it is anticipated that, with appropriate modifications, this approach can be extended to a range of microbiomes of industrial importance.

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