Biophysical Characterization of (Silica-coated) Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles for Hyperthermia Treatment

Magnetic hyperthermia is a technique that describes the heating of material through an external magnetic field. Classic hyperthermia is a medical condition where the human body overheats, being usually triggered by a heat stroke, which can lead to severe damage to organs and tissue due to the denaturation of cells. In modern medicine, hyperthermia can be deliberately induced to specified parts of the body to destroy malignant cells. Magnetic hyperthermia describes the way that this overheating is induced and it has the inherent advantage of being a minimal invasive method when compared to traditional surgery methods. This work presents a particle system that offers huge potential for hyperthermia treatments, given its good loss value, i.e., the particles dissipate a lot of heat to their surroundings when treated with an ac magnetic field. The measurements were performed in a low-cost custom hyperthermia setup. Additional toxicity assessments on Jurkat cells show a very low short-term toxicity on the particles and a moderate low toxicity after two days due to the prevalent health concerns towards nanoparticles in organisms

Measuring magnetic moments of polydisperse ferrofluids utilizing the inverse Langevin function

The dipole strength of magnetic particles in a suspension is obtained by a graphical rectification of the magnetization curves based on the inverse Langevin function. The method yields the arithmetic and the harmonic mean of the particle distribution. It has an advantage compared to the fitting of magnetization curves to some appropriate mathematical model: It does not rely on assuming a particular distribution function of the particles

Physiological Correlates of Volunteering

We review research on physiological correlates of volunteering, a neglected but promising research field. Some of these correlates seem to be causal factors influencing volunteering. Volunteers tend to have better physical health, both self-reported and expert-assessed, better mental health, and perform better on cognitive tasks. Research thus far has rarely examined neurological, neurochemical, hormonal, and genetic correlates of volunteering to any significant extent, especially controlling for other factors as potential confounds. Evolutionary theory and behavioral genetic research suggest the importance of such physiological factors in humans. Basically, many aspects of social relationships and social activities have effects on health (e.g., Newman and Roberts 2013; Uchino 2004), as the widely used biopsychosocial (BPS) model suggests (Institute of Medicine 2001). Studies of formal volunteering (FV), charitable giving, and altruistic behavior suggest that physiological characteristics are related to volunteering, including specific genes (such as oxytocin receptor [OXTR] genes, Arginine vasopressin receptor [AVPR] genes, dopamine D4 receptor [DRD4] genes, and 5-HTTLPR). We recommend that future research on physiological factors be extended to non-Western populations, focusing specifically on volunteering, and differentiating between different forms and types of volunteering and civic participation

Synthesis of magnetic ferrogels: a tool-box approach for finely tuned magnetic- and temperature-dependent properties

Multi responsive hydrogels have many potential applications in the field of medicine as well as technical fields and are of great interest in fundamental research. Here we present the synthesis and characterization of tailored magnetic hydrogels – micro- as well as macrogels – which consist of iron oxide and cobalt ferrite, varying in phase and morphology, embedded in a thermoresponsive polymer. We introduce new ways to synthesize magnetic particles and revisit some common strategies when dealing with particle synthesis. Subsequently we discuss the details of the thermoresponsive matrix and how we can influence and manipulate the thermoresponsive properties, i.e. the lower critical solution temperature. Ultimately, we present the particle-hydrogel composite and show two exemplary applications for particle matrix interactions, i.e. heat transfer and reorientation of the particles in a magnetic field