As an ideal method to manipulate biological particles, the dielectrophoresis (DEP) technique has been widely used in clinical diagnosis, disease treatment, drug development, immunoassays, cell sorting, etc. This review summarizes the research in the field of bioparticle manipulation based on DEP techniques. Firstly, the basic principle of DEP and its classical theories are introduced in brief; Secondly, a detailed introduction on the DEP technique used for bioparticle manipulation is presented, in which the applications are classified into five fields: capturing bioparticles to specific regions, focusing bioparticles in the sample, characterizing biomolecular interaction and detecting microorganism, pairing cells for electrofusion and separating different kinds of bioparticles; Thirdly, the effect of DEP on bioparticle viability is analyzed; Finally, the DEP techniques are summarized and future trends in bioparticle manipulation are suggested.

Since the cell was discovered by humans, it has been an important research subject for researchers. The mechanical response of cells to external stimuli and the biomechanical response inside cells are of great significance for maintaining the life activities of cells. These biomechanical behaviors have wide applications in the fields of disease research and micromanipulation. In order to study the mechanical behavior of single cells, various cell mechanics models have been proposed. In addition, the measurement technologies of single cells have been greatly developed. These models, combined with experimental techniques, can effectively explain the biomechanical behavior and reaction mechanism of cells. In this review, we first introduce the basic concept and biomechanical background of cells, then summarize the research progress of internal force models and experimental techniques in the field of cell mechanics and discuss the latest mechanical models and experimental methods. We summarize the application directions of cell mechanics and put forward the future perspectives of a cell mechanics model.

Ultrathin semiconducting van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures based on transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) play a critical role in developing next‐generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. The replacement of one component of the heterostructure by transition metal oxides (TMOs) certainly brings in numerous benefits including long‐term stability and novel functionalities. However, the single‐step chemical‐vapor deposition growth of TMOs/TMDs vdW heterostructures, as a highly desired approach for large‐scale fabrication and practical implementation, is challenging due to contradictory growth atmospheres of TMOs and TMDs. Here, the single‐step growth of an ultrathin WO_3–x/WS₂ vdW heterostructure based on the quantity‐driven discrepant interaction between S and the precursor, in which S induces sulfidation to produce WS₂ in the S‐rich phase and is changed to the reduction role to obtain sub‐stoichiometric WO_3–x in the S‐deficient phase is realized. Both WO_3–x and WS₂ exhibit semiconducting properties with a favorable type‐II band alignment. A wide response across the entire visible spectrum with a large photo‐responsivity of 4375 A W⁻¹, a detectivity of 5.47 × 10¹¹ Jones, and sub‐ms switching kinetics at 405 nm is achieved without gating bias, which is significantly improved over other reported ultrathin vdW heterostructures. This study demonstrates the possibility of single‐step‐growing TMOs/TMDs vdW heterostructures and their strong potential in high‐performance optoelectronic devices.

The kinetostatic and dynamic formulation of planar-compliant mechanisms is investigated by making use of the dynamic stiffness method based on Timoshenko beam theory. This research is prompted by the significance of considering both the shear deformation and rotary inertia for short and thick flexure beams widely used in compliant mechanisms. We investigate the problem by developing the frequency-dependent dynamic stiffness matrix with the pseudo-static characteristic for a threefold purpose. The first is to show that a closed-form dynamic stiffness matrix of flexure beams in power series of frequency including the shear deformation and rotary inertia is effective that is parameter-insightful and from a computational standpoint concise. Second, a programmable stiffness and mass assembling procedure is developed to build the kinetostatic and dynamic model for compliant mechanisms in a general sense. The third target is to accelerate the calculation efficiency of dynamic stiffness model by employing a linear solution strategy of natural frequencies which is beneficial for parameter optimization iteration. The presented approach is demonstrated by applying the parameter influence analysis and dimension synthesis of a bridge-type compliant mechanism widely used in micro-displacement and/or force amplifications