Innovative Gold/Cobalt Ferrite Nanocomposite: Physicochemical and Cytotoxicity Properties

The combination of plasmonic material and magnetic metal oxide nanoparticles is widely used in multifunctional nanosystems. Here we propose a method for the fabrication of a gold/cobalt ferrite nanocomposite for biomedical applications. The composite includes gold cores of ~10 nm in diameter coated with arginine, which are surrounded by small cobalt ferrite nanoparticles with diameters of ~5 nm covered with dihydrocaffeic acid. The structure and elemental composition, morphology and dimensions, magnetic and optical properties, and biocompatibility of new nanocomposite were studied. The magnetic properties of the composite are mostly determined by the superparamagnetic state of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles, and optical properties are influenced by the localized plasmon resonance in gold nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity of gold/cobalt ferrite nanocomposite was tested using T-lymphoblastic leukemia and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Studied composite has selective citotoxic effect on cancerous cells while it has no cytotoxic effect on healtly cells. The results suggest that this material can be explored in the future for combined photothermal treatment and magnetic theranostic

The Research on Role Differentiation as a Method of Forming the Project Team

According to the basic principle of self-developing systems, the interaction parameters of two opposing tendencies of the system operation can be distinguished – the conservative tendency and the changing tendency. It explains the balance of the two activity tendencies of team members – the ability to conserve and the ability to change.On the basis of the Belbin's model, each participant's role structure is determined by means of which the participants' activity tendencies are determined with use of Lotka, Volterra and Gause's self-developing systems. This system is considered according to the types of interactions such as “cooperation” and “competition”.The equilibrium point of role activity trends is determinedto have the most minimal impact that determines the subsequent state of the system maximally. It is shown that the role differentiation of the effective team does not always depend on the number of participants. Each participant may combine the multiple roles that can lead to the balance of conservative and changing tendencies. It defines the conditions of effective work in operational and development in management of project operation and development

Development of a Formal Algorithm for the Formulation of a Dual Linear Optimization Problem

The rigorous formal algorithm for formulating a dual problem for different forms (general, basic, standard, and canonical) of a primal linear programming problem is proposed. First, definitions of a pair of dual problems for standard form of primal linear programming are given. This approach is based on the fact that such a pair was noted first, since it had substantial interpretation.The economic interpretation of the standard problem is profit maximization in the production and sale of some types of products. Such an approach substantially indicates the existence of the primal problem (I) and the strictly corresponding dual (conjugate) (II). The problem of cost minimization is accompanying to the primal problem.The basic concept of the duality theory in linear programming problems is the fact that a pair of problems are mutually conjugate — obtaining dual of dual leads to a primal problem.The rigorous approach to obtaining an algorithm for formulating a dual problem is based on the statement that the dual problem of dual is a primal (original) problem. This approach is used in the paper. For different pairs of dual problems, this statement is rigorously proved.The existing schemes of primal to dual conversion are substantial. Given this, the algorithm of the general approach to formulating pairs of conjugate problems is proposed and rigorously proved.Formalization of the developed scheme makes it easy to get pairs of known dual problems. This allowed for the first time to propose and validate the algorithm for constructing a dual problem for an arbitrary form of the primal problem

Development of the Markovian Model for the Life Cycle of a Project's Benefits

This study has improved the standard P5 (Personnel, planet, profit, process, product), which has already been widely applied globally in the practice of project management. However, the standard P5 provides a scheme of the life cycle of projects' benefits, which makes it possible to represent the lifecycle processes only at the qualitative level. In order to pass to the quantitative estimates, it has been proposed to apply the Markovian chain that maps a phenomenological representation of complex systems without considering their physical character.We have constructed a cognitive Markovian model of the life cycle of a project's benefits using the communications between the states of the project system. The cognitive structure of the life cycle is similar to a directed graph where vertices indicate the state of the system, and links are the communications between them. We have proposed an approach to determining transitional probabilities based on the evaluation of communications, taking into consideration the time costs to perform operations in the form of rules. The character of communications between states s→j in the Markovian chain defines the magnitude of transition probabilities πsj. The time costs required for each state are divided into five intervals πsj: {0} – no costs; {0.01–0.1} – insignificant time costs; {0.1–0.3} – the lowest level of time costs; {0.3–0.7} – average time costs; {0.7–1.0} – the largest time costs. The logic of choosing values for conditional transition probabilities in the Markovian chain makes it possible to determine data for the simulation of the trajectory of the life cycle of projects' benefits in the coordinates of the probabilities of states of the system and steps.It has been shown that the application of the Markovian chains is rational in order to represent the life cycle of projects' benefits. An analysis was performed to determine a certain level of technological maturity of the project environment (organization), which corresponds to the totality of values for transition probabilities. We have studied the influence of the level of technological maturity of the project environment (organization) on the projects' efficiency.Another example of the implementation of the project aimed at forming the positive image of an educational establishment by applying the frontal information communication via television, the press, by taking part in mass political activities, has also revealed positive estimation. The probability distribution at the beginning of the project (V1) and upon its completion (V2) differs significantly. The implementation of the project increased the magnitudes of probabilities of states p7 (Benefit) and p8 (Additional benefit). At the beginning of the project: р7(V1)+р8(V2)=0.14+0.05=0.19. Upon implementation of the project: р7(V1)+р8(V2)=0.22+0.08=0.30. The evaluation of this project aimed at positive image formation of an educational establishment showed that the results obtained do not contradict the hypothesis about the possibility of applying the Markovian chains to determine the characteristics of the life cycle of a project's benefit

Communication Management in Social Networks for the Actualization of Publications in the World Scientific Community on the Example of the Network Researchgate

Development of social networks of scientists in the World Wide Web creates new schemes for wider awareness of the global scientists' community of scientific research findings. In this case, existing information technologies are facing difficulties in resolving contradictions, generated by a broad stream of scientific publications and complexity of access to these publications. Resolution of this controversy is carried out thanks to "digitalization" of scientific content, which predetermines possibility of implementation of new principles for information disseminating, such as SMM (Social Media Marketing).To substantiate and assess SMM, we accepted the hypothesis about possibility of phenomenological presentation of lifecycle of scientific publications with the states of readers' community: S1 – unawareness; S2 –awareness; S3 – positive attitude; S4 – citation; S5 – negative attitude. In view of these states, the model of publication lifecycle based on a Markov chain was constructed. It was proposed to use SMM principles from professional marketing agencies in relation to promotion of scientific content on the Internet. A distinctive feature of this approach is that proposed Markov chain is adjusted to different possible states of reader's community on assessment of publication by establishing the values of transition probabilities, which are chosen for particular states based on the expert evaluation.We investigated the influence of expansion of readers' audience, provision of presentation clarity, articles uniqueness, professional orientation, and data objectivity on the distribution of publication readership. Effectiveness of publications promotion with an active authors' participation to follow up on their publications in social scientific networks was shown