Acceptance of shari?ah-compliant precious metal-backed cryptocurrency as an alternative currency: an empirical validation of adoption of innovation theory

In the crypto world, there is a proverbial (and literal) gold rush now occurring. Currently, more than 37 gold-backed cryptocurrency companies have now emerged. Interestingly, some of them also claim to be Sharīʿah-compliant. Introducing precious metal-backed cryptocurrencies is perceived to be an innovation among global payment systems, hampered in part by lack of supporting empirical evidence. Therefore, this research investigates potential users' tendency to adopt a Sharīʿah-compliant precious metal-backed cryptocurrency. As such, this study adopts an extended adoption model, which consists of eight factors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted on data elicited from economic active residents in Klang Valley from questionnaires. Overall, it was found six out of the eight constructs specified to influence the adoption of precious metal-backed cryptocurrency were statistically significant where 54.5% of the variation in adoption of PMBC can be explained by the structure model provided by this research. It was also found 63.55% of the respondents are willing to adopt precious metal-backed cryptocurrency in their future transactions

Microtubule network as a potential candidate for targeting by gold nanoparticle-assisted photothermal therapy

Photothermal therapy is achieving ever-increasing attention as a promising method for killing cancer cells. Although, gold nanoparticles are regarded as one of the most effective photothermal therapy agents, the mechanisms underlying their action have to be addressed. Moreover, studies have showed that gold nanoparticles induce apoptosis in treated cultures. Hence, in this study, we investigated the interaction of folic acid functionalized gold nanoparticles and gold-shelled Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles with microtubule and microtubule associated protein tau in order to introduce intracellular targets of these nanoparticles and provide a holistic view about the mechanism of action of gold nanoparticles used in photothermal therapy. Various spectroscopic methods were used to find gold nanoparticles interaction with Tubulin and Tau. Our results indicated that these gold nanoparticles interact with both Tau and Tubulin and their affinity increases as temperature rises. Also, the results illustrated that quenching mechanism for gold nanoparticles interaction with Tubulin and Tau was static. The hydrophobic interaction was determined as driving force for gold nanoparticles binding to Tubulin and Tau. Moreover, it was showed that both type of gold nanoparticles stabilize microtubule polymers. These results suggest Tau and Tubulin as intracellular target of gold nanoparticles and propose that microtubule network is at the heart of apoptosis mechanisms initiated by photothermal therapy. © 201