Theranostic Applications of Au-Ag Nanocages and Nanocomposites

We report two novel biomedical applications of Au/Ag alloy nanoparticles called nanocages. In the first case, composite nanoparticles consisting of a nanocage core and a mesoporous silica shell doped with a photodynamic sensitizer Yb-2,4-hematoporphyrin were fabricated, characterized, and tested in vitro and ex vivo. In the second part of the study, Ag nanocubes and Au/Ag nanocages were applied to a multiplexed dot immunoassay. The assay principle is based on the staining of analyte drops on a nitrocellulose membrane strip by using multicolor nanoparticles conjugated with biospecific probing molecules. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3493

Synthesis and Study of PNIPAM Nanogels Incorporated with Colloidal Silver

Composite nanoparticles consisting of polymer gels with incorporated silver nanoparticles have been synthesized. The synthesis comprises two main stages. Initially, monodisperse hydrogel particles with a controlled diameter of approximately 500 nm are obtained by N-isopropylacrylamide polymerization. Then, silver ions are reduced on the surface of the polymer network. Variations in the concentration ratio between reductants and silver nitrate make it possible to produce silver nanoparticles with sizes in a range of 10-30 nm and different packing densities on the gel particle surface. The resultant nanocomposites have been studied by transmission electron microscopy, spectrophotometry, and dynamic light scattering. Depending on the size and packing density of the silver nanoparticles on the polymer particle surface, the plasmon resonance of the nanocomposites varies in a range of 420-750 nm, which determines variations in the color of the colloid from yellow, orange, and red to blue and blue-green. After the inclusion of silver nanoparticles, nanogels of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) retain their capability for thermosensitive phase transition with a lower critical mixing temperature of 31 °C. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3509

Mesoporous Silica and Composite Nanostructures for Theranostics

We discus methods for fabrication of silica and composite nanoparticles, which can be used in various biomedical applications. The most promising types of such nanostructures are hollow silica nanosheres, sil-ica coated plasmon-resonant nanoparticles (gold nanorods and gold-silver nanocages) and nanorattles. Mesoporous silica shell can be doped by desirable targeting molecules. Here we present the results of for-mation of nanocomposites composed of gold nanorods and double-layer silica shell. The secondary mesopo-rous silica shell is doped with a photosensitizer (hematoporphyrine in our case). We demonstate some of promising theranostics applications of these nanocomposites for bioimaging and in vivo therapy of tumors. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3548

Morphokinetics of mesenterial lymphatic node cell populations in exposure of gold nanoparticles within experimental work

The research goal is to investigate the influence of gold nanoparticles with different size (1-3 nm, 15 nm and 50 nm) on the morphokinetics of mesenterial lymphatic node cell populations of healthy laboratory animals. Experiment included 24 white rats. The investigation was conducted in 4 groups of animals. The animals were administered the gold nanoparticles orally for 15 days. It was established that the oral administration of gold nanoparticles caused the changes of morphokinetics of mesenterial lymphatic node cell populations. The morphological alterations in the mesenterial lymphatic nodes assisted in activation of migration processes, the proliferation and differentiation. The immu-nomodulatory action of gold nanoparticles was prove

Comprehensive T-matrix Reference Database: A 2009-2011 Update

The T-matrix method is one of the most versatile and efficient theoretical techniques widely used for the computation of electromagnetic scattering by single and composite particles, discrete random media, and particles in the vicinity of an interface separating two half-spaces with different refractive indices. This paper presents an update to the comprehensive database of peer-reviewed T-matrix publications compiled by us previously and includes the publications that appeared since 2009. It also lists several earlier publications not included in the original database

Comprehensive T-Matrix Reference Database: A 2007-2009 Update

The T-matrix method is among the most versatile, efficient, and widely used theoretical techniques for the numerically exact computation of electromagnetic scattering by homogeneous and composite particles, clusters of particles, discrete random media, and particles in the vicinity of an interface separating two half-spaces with different refractive indices. This paper presents an update to the comprehensive database of T-matrix publications compiled by us previously and includes the publications that appeared since 2007. It also lists several earlier publications not included in the original database

Tailored book : a distributed platform for authoring augmented communication books with language corpora referenced annotations

LAUREA SPECIALISTICAQuesto progetto è un tentativo di facilitare lo sviluppo della comunicazione e del linguaggio per bambini con disabilità complesse per mezzo di libri su misura. Il libro su misura è il ben noto strumento inventato in Italia che viene utilizzato per aiutare i bambini in una fase molto precoce in tutte le situazioni in cui c’è almeno il minimo dubbio di difficoltà nello sviluppo futuro della comunicazione. Il processo di produzione di libri su misura non è facile e richiede tempo, perché non c’è alcun software specificamente adattato per questo scopo. In questo progetto vorrei proporre un sistema che permette la creazione, la modifica, la visualizzazione e la distribuzione di tali libri. Il sistema è composto dalle applicazioni desktop e mobile che si chiamano rispettivamente “Tailored Book Editor” e “Tailored Book Reader“. “Tailored Book Editor” è responsabile per la creazione, la modifica e la distribuzione di tali libri. “Tailored Book Reader“ è responsabile per la visualizzazione di libri su misura creati da applicazione “Tailored Book Editor”. “Tailored Book Editor” prende come input un file .txt e un set di immagini marcate e produce un libro su misura. “Tailored Book Editor” contiene anche “Image Tagger”, un modulo che permette di etichettare le immagini, con il riferimento al database lessicale. La creazione del libro su misura viene effettuata da un file di testo che poi viene etichettato con POS tagger per assegnare le parti del discorso ad ogni parola. La coppia della parola e la sua parte del discorso viene poi inviata al database lessicale WordNet, che viene utilizzato per trovare tutti sinonimi di ogni coppia. Questi sinonimi - o in altre parole i tag - vengono quindi assegnati a ogni parola del file di testo iniziale per ulteriore l’assegnazione delle immagine. La differenza tra il tagging dei testi e il tagging dell’immagine è che l’annotazione delle immagine richiede la supervisione, mentre l’annotazione dei testi è fatto automaticamente. La progettazione e l’attuazione di tale sistema è descritto di seguito in questo progetto.This project is an endeavor to facilitate the development of communication and language for children with complex disabilities by means of tailored books. The tailored book or “su misura” book is the well-known tool invented in Italy used to help children at a very early stage in all situations where there is at least the slightest doubt of possible difficulties in the future development of communication. The process of tailored books’ production is not easy and time-consuming, because there is no specifically adapted software available for this purpose. In this project I would like to propose a system that allows the creation, modification, visualization and distribution of such books. The system is composed of the desktop and mobile applications that are called “Tailored Book Editor” and “Tailored Book Reader” accordingly. “Tailored Book Editor” is responsible for the creation, editing, and publication of such books. “Tailored Book Reader” is responsible for visualization of tailored books created by “Tailored Book Editor” application. “Tailored Book Editor” takes as input a .txt file and a set of tagged images and produces a tailored book. The “Tailored Book Editor” contains also “Image Tagger” module which allows tagging images with the reference to lexical database. The creation of a tailored book is carried out from a text file that is then tagged using the POS tagger for assigning the part of speech to each word. The couple of the word and its part of speech is then sent to the lexical database WordNet that is used to find all synonyms for each couple. These synonyms or in other words tags are then assigned to each word of initial text file for further image assignment. The difference between text tagging and image tagging is that the image tagging requires supervision while the text tagging is done automatically. The design and implementation of such system are described below in this project

Optical response of metal nanoparticle chains

We study the optical responses of metal nanoparticle chains. Multiple scattering calculations are used to study the extinction cross sections of silver nanosphere chains of finite length embedded in a glass matrix. The transmission and reflection coefficients of periodic 2D arrays of silver nanospheres are also calculated to understand the interaction between nanoparticle chains. The results are in agreement with recent experiments. The splitting of plasmon-resonance modes for different polarizations of the incident light are explored. Results on the effect of disorder are also presented.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

High-efficiency freezing-induced loading of inorganic nanoparticles and proteins into micron- and submicron-sized porous particles

We demonstrate a novel approach to the controlled loading of inorganic nanoparticles and proteins into submicron- and micron-sized porous particles. The approach is based on freezing/thawing cycles, which lead to high loading densities. The process was tested for the inclusion of Au, magnetite nanoparticles, and bovine serum albumin in biocompatible vaterite carriers of micron and submicron sizes. The amounts of loaded nanoparticles or substances were adjusted by the number of freezing/thawing cycles. Our method afforded at least a three times higher loading of magnetite nanoparticles and a four times higher loading of protein for micron vaterite particles, in comparison with conventional methods such as adsorption and coprecipitation. The capsules loaded with magnetite nanoparticles by the freezing-induced loading method moved faster in a magnetic field gradient than did the capsules loaded by adsorption or coprecipitation. Our approach allows the preparation of multicomponent nanocomposite materials with designed properties such as remote control (e.g. via the application of an electromagnetic or acoustic field) and cargo unloading. Such materials could be used as multimodal contrast agents, drug delivery systems, and sensors