1,720,978 research outputs found
Polymerization-induced self-assembly for drug delivery: A critical appraisal
Get PDFPolymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) with (in situ) encapsulation of (therapeutic) cargo has proven to be an efficient preparation method for loaded polymeric micelles and polymersomes, thereby presenting significant opportunities in the field of drug delivery. However, despite extensive research efforts, no significant advances toward systematic in vivo studies or clinical applications have been achieved to date. In this Review, we outline the current state-of-the-art of cargo encapsulation via PISA with a specific focus on developments achieved in the past 5 years. Considering the general requirements for functional drug delivery systems, we identify the major hurdles that still need to be overcome in order to push PISA-derived systems from a promising academic exercise to viable candidates for clinical translation
Nanoparticles exploring the macroscopic world
Get PDFMacroscopic material properties are ultimately determined by the microstructural arrangement of building blocks. Bottom-up material fabrication routes exploit this central dogma by reverse-engineering the required building blocks from a targeted structure or property. Despite the plethora of available building blocks, bridging the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic world remains a formidable task. Recently, Macfarlane and co-workers approached this challenge by developing sintering-inspired processing strategies for nanoparticles, allowing the production of centimeter-scale objects while maintaining order on a single-particle level
Framed by depletion
Get PDFColloidal structures and lattices made of patchy particles with chemically distinct lobes are formed by exploring site-specifc depletion forces. This approach introduces a simple route to assemble colloidal superlattices
Self-assembly of isotropic colloids into colloidal strings, Bernal spiral-like, and tubular clusters
No full textWe report the (spontaneous) formation of colloidal strings, Bernal spiral-like, and tubular clusters comprising spherical, isotropically functionalized colloidal particles in an aqueous environment. The formation of colloidal strings and Bernal spiral-like clusters is guided by an interplay between short-ranged hydrophobic attraction and relatively longer-ranged electrostatic repulsion acting between the colloids. When a dispersion of these colloids is densifiedviacentrifugation, well-defined tubular aggregates were observed
Manipulating matter with a snap of your fingers: A touch of Thanos in colloid science
Get PDFBeing able to manipulate matter has been a long-standing goal in material science. Would it not be amazing if we could control matter on the grand scale that Thanos does when in possession of the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War? In this paper, we evaluate how far mankind has come in the pursuit of Thanos-like matter manipulation powers. As the properties of everyday objects are directly linked to the spatial organization of the elementary building blocks on the micro- or even nano-scale, control on these length scales is crucial. In this respect, the use of colloids is a promising strategy. Colloids are characterized by dimensions in between those of atoms and macroscopic objects such as a chemistry textbook and your smartphone. Although colloidal particles are small enough to display behaviour reminiscent of that of atoms and molecules, they are big enough for scientists to manipulate them on the single-particle level. By playing with the shape and chemistry of these colloids, materials that are sensitive to external triggers, such as light or temperature, can be created. By controlling the trigger, the colloidal matter can be manipulated, formed, or destroyed. Clearly, at the microscale, we can compete with Thanos, even without the Infinity Stones
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
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