1,721,099 research outputs found
A new drug triggering mechanism in thermosensitive nanoparticles using a low-melting-point polymer / Ali Dabbagh
Get PDFThermosensitive nanocarriers are increasingly used to allow time and site-specific drug release with minimized systemic toxicity. Thermal-triggered drug release is often governed by coil-globule, membrane disruption, and micellization mechanisms. However, premature and slow drug release, low stability, and insufficient bioavailability remain challenging in most nanocarriers which utilize these triggering mechanisms.
This work aimed to introduce a new triggering mechanism using polymers with gel-liquid phase transition at hyperthermia and thermal ablation temperatures. This phase transition could generate structural defects in nanocarriers and thus facilitate drug release. In addition, for accurate assessment of the heated region during in vitro evaluation of nanocarriers, a novel thermosensitive phantom was developed.
Nanocarriers were synthesized using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as drug reservoir and two polymer formulations including polyacrylamide (PAA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the protective nanoshells. The graft-from and graft-to techniques were respectively employed to prepare PAA-MSNs and PEG-MSNs. The phase transition behaviours as well as various chemical, morphological, and thermal properties of these nanocarriers were characterized and their drug loading and release potentials were investigated using doxorubicin as a hydrophilic model drug. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) was also employed as a typical thermal modality to evaluate the drug release rates in short-term treatment intervals. The required phantom for MRgFUS experiments was developed using a thermochromic dye with reversible discolouration at hyperthermia range. Various physical, thermal, and acoustic properties of this phantom were measured to ensure their proximity to those of human
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soft tissues. The thermosensitive behaviour of this phantom was evaluated using radiofrequency (RF) and MRgFUS experiments. The aqueous solutions containing drug-loaded nanocarriers were further embedded within the phantom and sonicated by MRgFUS to determine their efficacy as adjuvants to this thermal modality.
Spectrophotometry analysis of the phantom showed a threshold temperature of 50±3°C with a 6°C difference between the onset and ending discolouration temperatures. The contrast change at focal point during sonication also allowed visualization of the thermal lesion in magnetic resonance images. The onset transition temperatures of PAA-MSNs and PEG-MSNs were 45.1±3.4°C and 40.4±1.8°C, respectively. The peak transition temperature of PEG-MSNs was also 20°C lower than that of PAA-MSNs, resulting in significantly sharper phase transitions. Drug release measurements for PAA-MSNs showed 11.5±2.4% leakage at 37°C after 30 minutes, while this value was significantly increased to 20.2±4.3% in PEG-MSNs. However, the maximum release ratio in PEG-MSNs (68.2±3.7%) was obtained at 50°C which was 10°C lower than that of PAA-MSNs (67.6±2.5% at 60°C). The drug release ratio from PEG-MSNs (45.5±3.1%) under MRgFUS exposure was also significantly higher than PAA-MSNs (39.2±2.2%).
Melting of polymer shells at hyperthermia and thermal ablation temperature ranges could provide thermal-triggered drug release from the core-shell nanocarriers with relatively low undesired release at physiological temperature. The drug release ratio from PEG-MSNs at physiological temperatures was higher than PAA-MSNs. However, the maximum drug release in these nanocarriers was obtained in significantly lower temperatures. Both PAA-MSNs and PEG-MSNs exhibited high loading efficiencies and rapid drug release rates at increased temperatures which make them promising for application as adjuvants to thermal modalities
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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