This article puts Werner Herzog’s films in dialogue with Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to answer the question of how to dwell, to be at home with nature. I argue that an apathy–empathy aporia ...blockades the discussion of the nature–human relationship in Herzog’s cinema, which tends to view his representation of nature as either entirely apathetic to human flourishing or totally identifiable with being human. Both versions of nature fail to do full justice to the nuanced vision of nature in Herzog, especially its dynamics and problematics as a safe place. To address this problem, I will closely read and compare three of his films across his career: Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972), Grizzly Man (2005), and Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) in the light of Heidegger’s philosophy. Drawing on Heidegger’s thought on dwelling, technology, being-in-the-world, temporality, Gelassenheit, and Care, I move away from the standard paradigm and reinterpret the nature–human relationship in Herzog as a negotiation between the homely and the unhomely in search of an equilibrium I call “active serenity.” Thus, this article is both a film-philosophy experiment with Herzog and Heidegger and a contemplation of the antagonism between humans and nature, which underlines our modern world.
This review discusses different forms of nanomaterials generated from chitosan and its derivatives for controlled drug delivery. Nanomaterials are drug carriers with multiple features, including ...target delivery triggered by environmental, pH, thermal responses, enhanced biocompatibility, and the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Chitosan (CS), a natural polysaccharide largely obtained from marine crustaceans, is a promising drug delivery vector for therapeutics and diagnostics, owing to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, and structural variability. This review describes various approaches to obtain novel CS derivatives, including their distinct advantages, as well as different forms of nanomaterials recently developed from CS. The advanced applications of CS-based nanomaterials are presented here in terms of their specific functions. Recent studies have proven that nanotechnology combined with CS and its derivatives could potentially circumvent obstacles in the transport of drugs thereby improving the drug efficacy. CS-based nanomaterials have been shown to be highly effective in targeted drug therapy.
A novel sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of the liver cancer marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in human serum is proposed. The two-dimensional MXene material Ti
3
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2
T
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was ...first prepared using etching and ultrasonic stripping, and then Ti
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T
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was used to reduce chloroauric acid to form Ti
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T
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/AuNP composites which were modified on the surface of the glassy carbon electrodes to form probe-type sensors. The Ti
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T
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/AuNPs provide a large number of binding sites for the AFP capture antibody (Ab1) and increase the electrochemical reaction active site. The Ti
3
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T
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/copper metal–organic frameworks HKUST-1 composite was also prepared by solvothermal method and combined with toluidine blue (TB) and AFP detection antibody (Ab2) to form a labeled sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor. The sensor achieved trace detection of AFP from 0.1 to 100 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.073 pg/mL and possesses good selectivity, stability, and reproducibility. The sensor performs well in clinical samples and has good potential for clinical applications.
Graphical Abstract
Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is a minimally invasive procedure for removing renal calculi, while a large number of patients experience acute moderate-to-severe pain despite the analgesia ...provided. This study aimed to explore the risk factors for postoperative pain after PCNL, which may provide a novel perspective to refine the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program and to improve clinical outcomes. The clinical data of 331 patients who underwent PCNL in our hospital from September 2020 to February 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The pain intensity was assessed every 4 h until 24 h post-surgery. According to the visual analog scale (VAS) score, patients were divided into two groups: mild or no pain group (VAS score, 0-3) and moderate-to-severe pain group (VAS score, 4-10). The pre-, peri-, and post-operative data were collected and analyzed. The indicators with statistically significant differences were selected, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the risk factors for postoperative pain after PCNL. Among 331 patients, 221 patients had moderate-to-severe pain and the incidence rate was 66.77%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors for moderate-to-severe pain after PCNL were the diameter of the renal calculus (odds ratio (OR) = 6.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.50-15.56, P = 0.001), the number of renal calculi (OR = 15.892, 95% CI 7.721-32.711, P < 0.01), the presence of residual calculi (OR = 1.780, 95% CI 0.897-3.533, P = 0.01), and operation time (OR = 1.033, 95% CI 1.020-1.046, P < 0.01). The diameter of the renal calculus, the number of renal calculi, the presence of residual calculi, and operation time were significant predictors of postoperative pain after PCNL.
On the second Robin eigenvalue of the Laplacian Li, Xiaolong; Wang, Kui; Wu, Haotian
Calculus of variations and partial differential equations,
12/2023, Letnik:
62, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We study the Robin eigenvalue problem for the Laplace–Beltrami operator on Riemannian manifolds. Our first result is a comparison theorem for the second Robin eigenvalue on geodesic balls in ...manifolds whose sectional curvatures are bounded from above. Our second result asserts that geodesic balls in nonpositively curved space forms maximize the second Robin eigenvalue among bounded domains of the same volume.
•LED-UV365 nm photolysis of FAC was efficient for removal of NSAIDs.•Key role of •OH, O3, RCS were confirmed at pH range of 5.5-8.5.•The decrease of DBPs formation resulted from the fast ...decomposition of FAC in UV.•The EE/O was as low as 0.046-0.086 kWh/m3/order for LED-UV365/FAC.
Light-emitting diode (LED) is environmentally friendly with longer life compared with traditionally mercury lamps. This study investigated the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)- phenacetin (PNT) and acetaminophen (ACT)- removal during LED-UV (365 nm) photolysis of free available chlorine (FAC). Degradation of PNT and ACT during LED-UV365/FAC treatment at pH 5.5-8.5 followed the pseudo-first order kinetics. The presence of hydroxyl radicals (·OH), reactive chlorine species (RCS), and ozone (O3, transformed from O (3P)) were screened by using scavengers of ethanol (EtOH), tert-Butanol (TBA), and 3-buten-2ol, and 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine (TEMP), and quantified by competition kinetics with probing compounds of nitrobenzene (NB), benzoate acid (BA), 1,4-dimethoxybenzene (DMOB). Higher pH would lead to decrease of ·OH contribution and an increase of FAC contribution to PNT and ACT degradation. It has been determined that the contribution of O3 to degradation of PNT and ACT was less than 5% for all pHs, and O3(P) reacts toward EtOH with second-order constant of 1.52 × 109 M−1s−1. LED-UV365/FAC system reduced the formation of five typical CX3-R type disinfection by-products (DBPs) as well as the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of water samples at pH 5.5 and 8.5, compared with FAC alone. The decrease of DBPs formation resulted from fast FAC decomposition upon LED-UV365 irradiation. A feasible reaction pathway of DBPs formation in the LED-UV365/FAC system was examined with density functional theory (DFT). For FAC decay during LED-UV365/FAC with effluent from wastewater, the residual FAC in 15 min was 0.8 mg/L (lower than limit of 0.2 mg/L) once initial FAC was 2.0 mg/L. The results indicate that more tests on the balance of target pollutant removal efficiency, residual FAC and cost should be explored in LED-UV365/FAC system for application.
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The motion of a single spherical particle in a two-sided lid-driven cavity is investigated experimentally. The flow in which the particle moves is created by two facing cavity sidewalls which move ...with equal velocity in opposite directions. For a long cavity with width-to-height cross-sectional aspect ratio $\varGamma =W/H=1.6$ the flow field at Reynolds number ${Re}=400$ consists of steady spatially periodic three-dimensional convection cells. Nearly neutrally buoyant particles with radius in units of $H$ ranging from $1.1\times 10^{-2}$ to $7.1\times 10^{-2}$ are found to be attracted to periodic or quasi-periodic orbits in close vicinity of Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser (KAM) tori of the unperturbed flow. Like the KAM tori the attractors of neutrally buoyant particles arise in mirror-symmetric pairs within each convection cell. The particle attractors are created by a dissipative effect in the dynamical system describing the particle motion which arises when the finite-size particle closely passes the moving walls. When the particle density deviates from that of the fluid, inertial attractors arise whose symmetry is broken by buoyancy, and other periodic attractors are created which do not have KAM tori as counterparts.
Extracellular vesicles and female reproduction Machtinger, Ronit; Baccarelli, Andrea A.; Wu, Haotian
Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics,
03/2021, Letnik:
38, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-sized membrane bound complexes that have been identified as a mean for intercellular communication between cells and tissues both in physiological and ...pathological conditions. These vesicles contain numerous molecules involved in signal transduction including microRNAs, mRNAs, DNA, proteins, lipids, and cytokines and can affect the behavior of recipient cells. Female reproduction is dependent on extremely fine-tuned endocrine regulation, and EVs may represent an added layer that contributes to this regulation. This narrative review article provides an update on the research of the role of EVs in female reproduction including folliculogenesis, fertilization, embryo quality, and implantation. We also highlight potential pitfalls in typical EV studies and discuss gaps in the current literature.
Facilitated by ultrafast dynamic modulations, spatiotemporal metasurfaces have been identified as a pivotal platform for manipulating electromagnetic waves and creating exotic physical phenomena, ...such as dispersion cancellation, Lorentz reciprocity breakage, and Doppler illusions. Motivated by emerging information-oriented technologies, we hereby probe the information transition mechanisms induced by spatiotemporal variations and present a general model to characterize the information processing capabilities of the spatiotemporal metasurface. Group theory and abstract number theory are adopted through this investigation, by which the group extension and independent controls of multiple harmonics are proposed and demonstrated as two major tools for information transitions from the spatiotemporal domain to the spectra-wavevector domain. By incorporating Shannon's entropy theory into the proposed model, we further discover the corresponding information transition efficiencies and the upper bound of the channel capacity of the spatiotemporal metasurface. The results of harmonic information transitions show great potential in achieving high-capacity versatile information processing systems with spatiotemporal metasurfaces.
Abstract
The availability of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials on a wide range of substrates forms the basis for large-area applications, such as graphene integration with ...silicon-based technologies, which requires graphene on silicon with outperforming carrier mobilities. However, 2D materials were only produced on limited archetypal substrates by chemical vapor deposition approaches. Reliable after-growth transfer techniques, that do not produce cracks, contamination, and wrinkles, are critical for layering 2D materials onto arbitrary substrates. Here we show that, by incorporating oxhydryl groups-containing volatile molecules, the supporting films can be deformed under heat to achieve a controllable conformal contact, enabling the large-area transfer of 2D films without cracks, contamination, and wrinkles. The resulting conformity with enhanced adhesion facilitates the direct delamination of supporting films from graphene, providing ultraclean surfaces and carrier mobilities up to 1,420,000 cm
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