Concentration-Dependent, Size-Independent Toxicity of Citrate Capped AuNPs in Drosophila melanogaster

The expected potential benefits promised by nanotechnology in various fields have led to a rapid increase of the presence of engineered nanomaterials in a high number of commercial goods. This is generating increasing questions about possible risks for human health and environment, due to the lack of an in-depth assessment of the physical/chemical factors responsible for their toxic effects. In this work, we evaluated the toxicity of monodisperse citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different sizes (5, 15, 40, and 80 nm) in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, upon ingestion. To properly evaluate and distinguish the possible dose- and/or size-dependent toxicity of the AuNPs, we performed a thorough assessment of their biological effects, using two different dose-metrics. In the first approach, we kept constant the total surface area of the differently sized AuNPs (Total Exposed Surface area approach, TES), while, in the second approach, we used the same number concentration of the four different sizes of AuNPs (Total Number of Nanoparticles approach, TNN). We observed a significant AuNPs-induced toxicity in vivo, namely a strong reduction of Drosophila lifespan and fertility performance, presence of DNA fragmentation, as well as a significant modification in the expression levels of genes involved in stress responses, DNA damage recognition and apoptosis pathway. Interestingly, we found that, within the investigated experimental conditions, the toxic effects in the exposed organisms were directly related to the concentration of the AuNPs administered, irrespective of their size

Biodistribution, clearance, and long‐term fate of clinically relevant nanomaterials

Realization of the immense potential of nanomaterials for biomedical applications will require a thorough understanding of how they interact with cells, tissues, and organs. There is evidence that, depending on their physicochemical properties and subsequent interactions, nanomaterials are indeed taken up by cells. However, the subsequent release and/or intracellular degradation of the materials, transfer to other cells, and/or translocation across tissue barriers are still poorly understood. The involvement of these cellular clearance mechanisms strongly influences the long-term fate of used nanomaterials, especially if one also considers repeated exposure. Several nanomaterials, such as liposomes and iron oxide, gold, or silica nanoparticles, are already approved by the American Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials; however, there is still a huge gap of knowledge concerning their fate in the body. Herein, clinically relevant nanomaterials, their possible modes of exposure, as well as the biological barriers they must overcome to be effective are reviewed. Furthermore, the biodistribution and kinetics of nanomaterials and their modes of clearance are discussed, knowledge of the long-term fates of a selection of nanomaterials is summarized, and the critical points that must be considered for future research are addressed

A Teachware for Mobile Teachers on Basic Reading

More than sixteen (16) million Filipinos cannot read and write (DepEd, 2011). Illiteracy is the continuous cycle between poverty and ignorance that cultivates the Filipino struggle. In this light, the Bureau of Alternative Learning System has partnered with various organizations including the Quezon City Police Department Station 10 and Barangay Loyola Heights in order to deliver and conduct lessons for illiterate individuals. Their learners include a variety of people that are usually domestic workers and inmates who completely cannot read the basic alphabet. The teachers cannot deliver the topics in an organized manner and do not present the letters as constituents of the word as well as properly exhibit the mapping of the word to letter to sound and vice versa. With that said, the proponents will develop a teachware that will serve as a tool that will assist the mobile teachers in teaching adult learners to verbalize a word with or without knowing its meaning. Explicit Reading, Systematic Reading and Phonemic Awareness Instruction are the models and/or teaching approach to be used so that the teachware to be developed will be effective and appropriate to the demographic

A teachware for mobile teachers on basic reading

More than sixteen (16) million Filipinos cannot read and write (DepEd, 2011). Illiteracy is the continuous cycle between poverty and ignorance that cultivates the Filipino struggle. In this light, the Bureau of Alternative Learning System has partnered with various organizations including the Quezon City Police Department Station 10 and Barangay Loyola Heights in order to deliver and conduct lessons for illiterate individuals. Their learners include a variety of people that are usually domestic workers and inmates who completely cannot read the basic alphabet. The teachers cannot deliver the topics in an organized manner and do not present the letters as constituents of the word as well as properly exhibit the mapping of the word to letter to sound and vice versa. With that said, the proponents will develop a teachware that will serve as a tool that will assist the mobile teachers in teaching adult learners to verbalize a word with or without knowing its meaning. Explicit Reading, Systematic Reading and Phonemic Awareness Instruction are the models and/or teaching approach to be used so that the teachware to be developed will be effective and appropriate to the demographic

Cellular Energy Efficiency Evaluation Framework

In order to quantify the energy savings in wireless networks, the power consumption of the entire system needs to be captured and an appropriate energy efficiency evaluation framework must be defined. In this paper, the necessary enhancements over existing performance evaluation frameworks are discussed, such that the energy efficiency of the entire network comprising component, node and network level contributions can be quantified. The most important addendums over existing frameworks include a sophisticated power model for various base station (BS) types, which maps the RF output power radiated at the antenna elements to the total supply power of a BS site. We also consider an approach to quantify the energy efficiency of large geographical areas by using the existing small scale deployment models along with long term traffic models. Finally, the proposed evaluation framework is applied to quantify the energy efficiency of the downlink of a 3GPP LTE radio access network