In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in the preparation and application of nanoparticles for cancer therapy. Gold nanoparticles are especially suited to thermal destruction of ...cancer due to their ease of surface functionalization and photothermal heating ability. Here, we review recent progress in gold nanoparticle-mediated thermal cancer therapies. We begin with an introduction to the properties of gold nanoparticles and heat-generating mechanisms which have been established. The pioneering work in photothermal therapy is discussed along with the effects of photothermal heating on cells in vitro. Additionally, radiofrequency-mediated thermal therapy is reviewed. We focus our discussion on the developments and progress in nanoparticle design for photothermal cancer therapy since 2010. This includes in vitro and in vivo studies and the recent progression of gold nanoparticle photothermal therapy toward clinical cancer treatment.
In Sean Baker's award-winning 2017 film The Florida
Project , a young girl, her single mother, and her friends live
in rundown motels near Disney World, the children's summer fun
contrasting with the ...grim conditions around them. In this book, J.
J. Murphy delves deep into the movie's development and filming
while also examining it within the wider context of Baker's
career.
Using production documents, different versions of the
screenplay, and interviews with principal members of the production
team, Murphy traces the evolution of The Florida Project
from initial idea through its various stages of production. He
highlights Baker's unconventional strategies in making a film about
a marginalized subculture, including alternative scripting,
guerrilla-like filmmaking, improvisation, and the unorthodox
casting of local and first-time actors. Murphy also explores how
Baker's impromptu style sometimes rankled crew members and caused a
major crisis on set, revealing the difficulties indie filmmakers
can face when working with professional crews on larger films. A
lively analysis of this critically acclaimed movie, its director,
and its production, The Florida Project also betters our
understanding of contemporary independent cinema as a whole.
During the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in our understanding of the roles of intracellular lipid droplets (LDs). New genetic, biochemical and imaging technologies have underpinned ...these advances, which are revealing much new information about these dynamic organelles. This review takes a comparative approach by examining recent work on LDs across the whole range of biological organisms from archaea and bacteria, through yeast and Drosophila to mammals, including humans. LDs probably evolved originally in microorganisms as temporary stores of excess dietary lipid that was surplus to the immediate requirements of membrane formation/turnover. LDs then acquired roles as long-term carbon stores that enabled organisms to survive episodic lack of nutrients. In multicellular organisms, LDs went on to acquire numerous additional roles including cell- and organism-level lipid homeostasis, protein sequestration, membrane trafficking and signalling. Many pathogens of plants and animals subvert their host LD metabolism as part of their infection process. Finally, malfunctions in LDs and associated proteins are implicated in several degenerative diseases of modern humans, among the most serious of which is the increasingly prevalent constellation of pathologies, such as obesity and insulin resistance, which is associated with metabolic syndrome.
Appinite complexes preserve evidence of mantle processes that produce voluminous granitoid batholiths. These plutonic complexes range from ultramafic to felsic in composition, deep to shallow ...emplacement, and from Neo-Archean to Recent in age. Appinites are a textural family characterized by idiomorphic hornblende in all lithologies, and spectacular textures including coarse-grained mafic pegmatites, fine-grained 'salt-and-pepper' gabbros, as well as planar and linear fabrics. Magmas are bimodal (mafic-felsic) in composition; ultramafic rocks are cumulates, intermediate rocks are hybrids. Their geochemistry is profoundly influenced by a mantle wedge extensively metasomatized by fluids/magmas produced by subduction. Melting of spinel peridotite sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) produces appinites whose geochemistry is indistinguishable from coeval low-K calc-alkalic arc magmatism. Coeval felsic rocks within appinite complexes and adjacent granitoid batholiths are crustal magmas. When subduction terminates, asthenospheric upwelling (e.g. in a slab window, or in the aftermath of slab failure) induces melting of metasomatized garnet SCLM to produce K-rich sho shonitic magmas enriched in large ionic lithophile and light relative to heavy rare earth elements, whose asthenospheric component can be identified by Sm-Nd isotopic signatures. Coeval late-stage Ba-Sr granitoid magmas have a 'slab failure' geochemistry, resemble TTG and adakitic suites, and are formed either by fractionation of an enriched (shoshonitic) mafic magma, or high pressure melting of a meta-basaltic protolith either at the base of the crust or along the upper portion of the subducted slab. Appinite complexes may be the crustal representation of mafic magma that underplated the crust for the duration of arc magmatism. They were preferentially emplaced along fault zones around the periphery of the granitoid batholiths (where their ascent is not blocked by overlying felsic magma), and as enclaves within granitoid batholiths. When subduction ceases, appinite complexes with a more pronounced asthenospheric component are preferentially emplaced along active faults that bound the periphery of the batholiths.
The development of facile seeded growth syntheses for anisotropic gold nanoparticles (particularly gold nanorods) has spurred an interest in their optical properties and applications. The development ...of the first seeded growth synthesis for gold nanorods in 2001 was a transformative event, providing the first simple, convenient wet chemistry route to these nanomaterials. Over the past decade, the original seeded growth procedure has been the subject of further modifications that have continuously expanded researchers’ access to anisotropic gold nanoparticles. Recent modifications to the synthesis have improved synthetic control over gold nanorod aspect ratio, increased synthesis up to the gram scale, and provided the opportunity to tightly control the absolute dimensions of AuNRs. Despite these advances, the mechanism of gold nanorod growth in this synthesis remains poorly understood. Recent investigations into gold nanorod growth mechanisms have revealed the process to be unexpectedly complex, suggesting that many different reagents interact synergistically to promote shape control, and that growth of the AuNR core may proceed by complex processes, such as stochastic nanorod growth. Nevertheless, the advent of new in situ characterization techniques promises to shortly reveal new insights into gold nanorod core growth, and may inform further significant modifications, improving the efficiency and versatility of seeded growth synthesis. In this review, we recount the history of the seeded growth synthesis for gold nanorods, examine the impact of recent advances in this synthesis, and current investigations into the mechanism of gold nanorod growth.
Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic in Ireland resulted in a nationwide quarantine on March 27, 2020. This study represents the first assessment of rates of anxiety and depression in the general ...population of Ireland during the pandemic.
Aims
Our first aim was to estimate the probable prevalence rates of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression and to identify sociodemographic risk factors associated with screening positive for GAD or depression. Our second aim was to determine if COVID‐19 related anxiety was highest amongst those in society at greatest risk of morality from COVID‐19.
Method
Self‐report data were collected from a nationally representative Irish sample (N = 1041) online between March 31 and April 5; the first week of the nationwide quarantine measures. Recognized cut‐off scores on the GAD‐7 and PHQ‐9 were used to estimate rates of GAD and depression. Correlates of screening positive for GAD or depression were assessed using logistic regression analysis.
Results
GAD (20.0%), depression (22.8%) and GAD or depression (27.7%) was common. Screening positive for GAD or depression was associated with younger age, female sex, loss of income due to COVID‐19, COVID‐19 infection and higher perceived risk of COVID‐19 infection. Citizens aged 65 and older had significantly higher levels of COVID‐19 related anxiety than adults aged 18–34.
Conclusions
Initial results from this multi‐wave study monitoring changes in population anxiety and depression throughout the pandemic indicate that GAD and depression were common experiences in the population during the initial phase of the COVID‐19 pandemic.
PDF
