Search

Multifunctional targeted drug delivery systems have been explored as a novel cancer treatment strategy to overcome limitations of traditional chemotherapy. The combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy has been shown to enhance efficacy, but the phototoxicity of traditional photosensitizers is a challenge. In this study, we prepared a multi-sensitive composite hydrogel containing gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) and the temperature-sensitive antitumor drug 5-fluorourac il (5-FU) using carboxymethyl cellulose (Carr) as a dual-functional template. Au NCs were synthesized using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent and potassium as a promoter. The resulting Au NCs were embedded in the Carr hydrogel, which was then conjugated with lactobionic acid (LA) as a targeting ligand. The resulting Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA composite hydrogel was used for synergistic photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), and chemotherapy. Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA releases the drug faster at pH 5.0 due to the acid sensitivity of the Carr polymer chain. In addition, at 50 °C, the release rate of Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA is 78.2%, indicating that the higher temperature generated by the photothermal effect is conducive to the degradation of Carr polymer chains. The Carr hydrogel stabilized the Au NCs and acted as a matrix for drug loading, and the LA ligand facilitated targeted delivery to tumor cells. The composite hydrogel exhibited excellent biocompatibility and synergistic antitumor efficacy, as demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experiments. In addition, the hydrogel had thermal imaging capabilities, making it a promising multifunctional platform for targeted cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESAM Academy Journal is the property of Tesam Academy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Perspectives on Culture / Perspektywy Kultury is the property of Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article argues that John Dickson Carr's first four novels about Inspector Henri Bencolin each draw from a different early modern revenge tragedy: It Walks by Night alludes to John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi; Castle Skull borrows names and atmosphere from Henry Chettle's Hoffman; The Lost Gallows nods to Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy; and The Corpse in the Waxworks evokes Thomas Middleton's and William Rowley's The Changeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional targeted drug delivery systems have been explored as a novel cancer treatment strategy to overcome limitations of traditional chemotherapy. The combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy has been shown to enhance efficacy, but the phototoxicity of traditional photosensitizers is a challenge. In this study, we prepared a multi-sensitive composite hydrogel containing gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) and the temperature-sensitive antitumor drug 5-fluorourac il (5-FU) using carboxymethyl cellulose (Carr) as a dual-functional template. Au NCs were synthesized using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent and potassium as a promoter. The resulting Au NCs were embedded in the Carr hydrogel, which was then conjugated with lactobionic acid (LA) as a targeting ligand. The resulting Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA composite hydrogel was used for synergistic photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), and chemotherapy. Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA releases the drug faster at pH 5.0 due to the acid sensitivity of the Carr polymer chain. In addition, at 50 °C, the release rate of Au NCs/5-FU@Carr-LA is 78.2%, indicating that the higher temperature generated by the photothermal effect is conducive to the degradation of Carr polymer chains. The Carr hydrogel stabilized the Au NCs and acted as a matrix for drug loading, and the LA ligand facilitated targeted delivery to tumor cells. The composite hydrogel exhibited excellent biocompatibility and synergistic antitumor efficacy, as demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experiments. In addition, the hydrogel had thermal imaging capabilities, making it a promising multifunctional platform for targeted cancer therapy.

This article contends that Christ's eucharistic offer of friendship, and the habits of attentiveness such real presence demands, must shape the church's mission in a digital milieu that tends to shallow attention and relationships. It makes this argument in dialogue principally with the theology of Bernard Lonergan and the pontificate of Pope Francis, while aided by the cultural commentary of Nicholas Carr, Sherry Turkle, and Marshall McLuhan. First, I consider how Lonergan's focus on human knowing and choosing anticipates the recent turn in the Catholic magisterium under Pope Francis that considers the formative effects of digital communication technologies. Second, I show how Lonergan's account of bias helps explain the shallowing effects of these technologies, for both cognition and community. Third, inspired by Lonergan and Pope Francis, I propose how practices of friendship—informed by Christ's own friendship extended through Eucharistic presence—can foster habits of real presence able to counter the shallows of our digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the spillover between volatilities obtained from the Conditional Autoregressive Range (CARR) process with the Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregressive (TVP-VAR) based Diebold-Yilmaz approach. We apply Gumbel distributed CARR (1,1) to estimate the volatilities. The summary statistics for the volatility series indicate that the series are not normally distributed, and innovations fit the Gumbel distribution. Also, the obtained volatility series are stationary. We also observe that a significant autocorrelation emerges in all series and the square series. Therefore, using a TVP-VAR model with a time-varying variance-covariance structure is a proper econometric framework to capture all these empirical properties. Moreover, we investigate the impact of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict on global markets as an example. For this purpose, we consider the Russian stock market index and indices selected from among the twenty largest stock exchanges by asset size to perform the connectedness analysis. In TVP-VAR based connectedness approach, we calculate averaged connectedness measures of two panels, without and with the Russian stock exchange. The findings show that the total connectedness index is 79.91% in the first panel, and it increases to 81.44% with the addition of Russian market.

A prompt γ-ray neutron activation analysis system has recently been developed at China advanced research reactor (CARR), the 60 MW research reactor in China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The system is set at the cold neutron beam guide with a thermal equivalent neutron flux at the sample position of 1.0 × 109 n·cm−2·s−1 with the power of 30 MW, and it is mainly composed of a neutron beam collimator, a sample chamber, a beam stopper, neutron and γ-ray shieldings and a detection system. The detection system can realize three modes of measurement: single, Compton suppression, and pair modes. The detection efficiency was calibrated up to 11 MeV using a set of radionuclides and the (n, γ) reactions of N and Cl. Boron, one of the most important elements in high-temperature alloy material studies, was analyzed in this work, as the first pilot experiment of the CARR-PGNAA system. The analytical sensitivity of 2000 cps/mg-B was obtained. The results verified the feasibility of the CARR-PGNAA system to measure boron in high-temperature alloys, and laid a foundation for the accurate quantification of boron in the next step. • A PGNAA system was developed on China Advanced Research Reactor of China Institute of Atomic Energy. • Boron-containing high-temperature alloys were analyzed in this work and the sensitivity of 2000 cps/mg-B was obtained. • The results verified the feasibility of the PGNAA system to measure boron in high-temperature alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decision analysis model is presented that can be used by a contractor to determine the optimum lump-sum bid that maximizes expected utility for an upcoming job. Required inputs include the contractor's utility curve, the distribution of the opponents' low bid-to-cost ratio, and the distribution of the project cost. Closed-form expressions for expected utility are developed for an exponential utility curve and normally distributed project cost that can also be used as approximations for other models. Any appropriate bidding model can be used to estimate the probability to win. Important concepts introduced include the certain equivalent and the risk premium for a project profit lottery, corporate indifferent buying price (CIBP), and risk-adjusted cost (RAC). Parametric curves from the maximization of expected utility over a total of 21,462 combinations of the contractor's risk tolerance and the standard deviation of project cost illustrate the considerable impact of risk aversion and cost uncertainty on the optimal bid-to-cost ratio, on the probability of losing money on the job, and on the certain equivalent and risk premium for profit. This sensitivity analysis shows that maximizing expected utility can result in an optimal bid-to-cost ratio that can be significantly different (smaller or larger) than the bid-to-cost ratio found by only maximizing expected profit and ignoring the significant impact of uncertainty in project cost σ. The presented procedure allows contractors to use any appropriate model for the probability of winning (such as those proposed by Friedman, Gates, Carr, or Ioannou), assess their risk tolerance and the standard deviation of project cost, and select an optimal bid price that maximizes their expected utility for profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central and Eastern Europe played an important role in British interwar international thought. This article contrasts the visions of the region found in three key texts written by British scholars in the interwar period. Two of these, Halford Mackinder's 1919 Democratic Ideals and Reality and E. H. Carr's 1939 Twenty Years' Crisis, share a common approach based on an abstract understanding of the nature of international order, even while they disagree on their prescriptions for Central and Eastern Europe. Starting from abstract principles, they then apply their findings to Central and Eastern Europe. By contrast, in her 1938 Czechs and Germans Elizabeth Wiskemann works in the other direction. Through a detailed analysis of the politics of the Bohemian historic provinces she comes to conclusions that can be applied to ideas of world order. Wiskemann's detailed analysis and Mackinder's and Carr's more abstract proscriptions provided different viewpoints on the international relations of interwar Central Europe, although ultimately all three visions were overtaken by events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the advance of right-wing populism in many Western democracies, political economists have sought explanations for political disaffection in the socioeconomic dislocations wrought by globalization, deindustrialization, and automation. Distrust of institutions and elites has been identified as a consequence of open markets and neoliberal governance. While affirming the public trust as a cornerstone of liberal democracy, this article directs analysis of the contemporary condition to a broader set of uniquely psychosocial and cultural dynamics. We identify sentiments ranging from disillusion to defiance that are now fueling a runaway politics narrowly defined around race, ethnicity, and national identity. We examine the stakes of eroding public trust in historical and theoretical perspective through an analysis of key works of Karl Polanyi, John Maynard Keynes, and E. H. Carr. Drawing parallels to their assessments of the interwar period, we argue that today's resentment politics is not singularly the product of economic hardship or even institutional failure, but emerges also from a breakdown of the social and cultural ties that underpin liberalism—a "delicate order" built in part on sublimated psychosocial understandings of agency and community. Democracy again hangs in the balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at conceptualization of a social event as a way of measuring social time. The idea of the discreteness of social reality and the uniqueness of the event determined through its consequences constitute the epistemological basis of thinking about an event in this capacity. To achieve her goal, the author addresses the texts by Georg Simmel, David Carr, and Alain Badiou. Based on the work done, the author interprets social time as a narrative of a priori nature and links time measurement with the designation of events.

In this study, the will to power in Nietzsche's philosophy has been debated in relation to the new paradigm, in particular, in the basic arguments of the discipline of international relations. This study will approach these discussions mostly in reference to names such as E.H. Carr, Morgenthau, Waltz, etc., in the context of realist paradigm. The concept of “will to power” will be evaluated from the perspective of international relations, and the distinctive role of the “will to power” in terms of breaking points will be determined. The claim that the new paradigm that Nietzsche puts forward with the idea of the will to power combines the perspective based on conflict and ongoing conflict of interest with a multidisciplinary point of view will be discussed. The main objective of the study is to bring about a new breakthrough to the discussions in international relations discipline specifically within the frame of realist paradigm, through Nietzsche's political philosophy, which is rarely discussed in this area, and discuss the common points between the concept of power in realism and Nietzsche's idea of will to power.

This article is a comparative analysis of Woman and Scarecrow by Marina Carr and The Seafarer by Conor McPherson from a hauntological perspective. It aims at discussing the influence of supernatural beings on mortal protagonists as well as addressing the configurations of power and knowledge formed between the characters. Woman and Scarecrow follows the final moments of a dying woman accompanied by the mysterious figure of Scarecrow, who is hidden from other characters. The verbal exchanges between Scarecrow and Woman will be interpreted as a manifestation of the apparent power possessed by the former, the ambiguous supernatural figure, over the latter, a human being, in terms of appropriating the knowledge about the woman's past. In McPherson's The Seafarer, a mysterious relationship develops between Sharky and Mr. Lockhart, who knows about Sharky's past, too. This paper will demonstrate both similarities and differences in the way in which Carr and McPherson make use of supernatural beings that manipulate human characters in the most crucial moments of their lives and will situate the two plays within the recent rise of interest in spectrality in Irish drama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay elucidates the deep affinity between the political theories of E.H. Carr and Reinhold Niebuhr. Central to this affinity was their shared advocacy of an ongoing dialectic between vision and critique, or (in their words) utopianism and realism. The immediate justification for this essay is the surprising dearth of extended comparisons of Carr and Niebuhr, even though Carr in The Twenty Years’ Crisis acknowledges a particular debt to Niebuhr and cites Niebuhr seven times in that work. Comparing Carr and Niebuhr also reveals the Marxist roots of their dialectical approach and highlights their adamant refusal to proclaim themselves ‘realists’. The essay thus encourages the discipline of international relations to seek its genealogy in the tradition of radical political thought and to reassess the common assumption that Carr and Niebuhr are founders of the modern realist approach. In the author’s view, the ‘ultimate optimism’ of Carr and Niebuhr, though widely underappreciated, is compelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a dynamic model for the high/low range of asset prices within fixed time intervals: the Conditional Autoregressive Range Model (hence-forth CARR). The evolution of the conditional range is specified in a fashion similar to the conditional variance models as in GARCH and is very similar to the Autoregressive Conditional Duration (ACD) model of Engle and Russell (1998). Extreme value theories imply that the range is an efficient estimator of the local volatility, e.g., Parkinson (1980). Hence, CARR can be viewed as a model of volatility. Out-of-sample volatility forecasts using the S&P500 index data show that the CARR model does provide sharper volatility estimates compared with a standard GARCH model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this paper is to examine the role of morality in foreign policy decision making and action, while its goal is to argue that (1) morality plays an important role in the creation of foreign policy, and (2) that it is not possible to formulate a credible and intelligible foreign policy decision without moral considerations. In order to argue this point the author relies on the theoretical framework set by Edward Hallet Carr in his groundbreaking book The Twenty Years Crisis (1946), and reinforce his conclusions with an examination of one of the pivotal passages of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, the famous Funeral Oration delivered by the Athenian statesman Pericles. In conclusion, the author claims that even in international relations are completely amoral, as they are in the realist account, that foreign policy cannot be, due to the inability of formulating foreign policy without moral considerations.

In this study, the will to power in Nietzsche's philosophy has been debated in relation to the new paradigm, in particular, in the basic arguments of the discipline of international relations. This study will approach these discussions mostly in reference to names such as E.H. Carr, Morgenthau, Waltz, etc., in the context of realist paradigm. The concept of "will to power" will be evaluated from the perspective of international relations, and the distinctive role of the "will to power" in terms of breaking points will be determined. The claim that the new paradigm that Nietzsche puts forward with the idea of the will to power combines the perspective based on conflict and ongoing conflict of interest with a multidisciplinary point of view will be discussed. The main objective of the study is to bring about a new breakthrough to the discussions in international relations discipline specifically within the frame of realist paradigm, through Nietzsche's political philosophy, which is rarely discussed in this area, and discuss the common points between the concept of power in realism and Nietzsche's idea of will to power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A neutron depth profiling (NDP) device was developed on China advanced research reactor (CARR) of China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The CARR-NDP device uses cold neutron beams transmitted by a neutron guide from the cold neutron source of CARR, and it is composed of a neutron beam collimator, and a vacuum target chamber containing a beam stopper and a detection system. The neutron flux at 1 m from the end of neutron guide is about 4.8 × 108 n cm−2 s−1 under operating power of 15 MW. A standard reference material SRM-2137 sample and a multilayer film sample were utilized to verify the performances of the CARR-NDP device. • A new neutron depth profiling system is developed on China advanced research reactor of China Institute of Atomic Energy. • A SRM-2137 sample and a multilayer film sample (Li-Cu-Li) are utilized to verify the performances of the new system. • The results agree well with the reference values and the maximum deviation is less than 5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even if the Gothic romance may be considered as one of the predecessors of detective fiction, the world model proposed by the latter seems to exclude what was the essence of the former: the irrational underlying the proposed world model. However, some of detective novel writers deploy Gothic conventions in their texts, thus questioning the rational order of the reality presented there. Such a genological syncretism is typical - among others - of the novels by John Dickson Carr. The paper is an analysis of Gothic conventions and their functions in four earliest novels by Carr, featuring a French detective-protagonist, Henri Bencolin. It concentrates on elements of Gothic horror, on the atmosphere of terror as well as the motif of the past intruding the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new variant of RealGARCH model, GARCH@CARR is proposed for volatility modeling and forecasting. • The GARCH@CARR model is simpler in specification than the existed RealGARCH variants. • Empirical results show that the GARCH@CARR model outperforms both the GARCH and EGARCH models. • The GARCH@CARR model provides an alternative for analyzing volatilty dynamics. Abstract A new variant of RealGARCH model is proposed for volatility modeling and forecasting. The main difference between this variant and the existed variants is that we use a multiplicative error model (MEM) structure to the measurement equation. Empirical studies are performed on several stock indices to evaluate our model specification, and the results turn out to be promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An implied assumption in the asymmetric conditional autoregressive range (ACARR) model is that upward range is independent of downward range. This paper scrutinizes this assumption on a broad variety of stock indices. Instead of independence, we find significant cross‐interdependence between the upward range and the downward range. Regression test shows that the cross‐interdependence cannot be explained by leverage effect. To include the cross‐interdependence, a feedback asymmetric conditional autoregressive range (FACARR) model is proposed. Empirical studies are performed on a variety of stock indices, and the results show that the FACARR model outperforms the ACARR model with high significance for both in‐sample and out‐of‐sample forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a resurgence of interest in the role of scientific knowledge and expertise in International Relations, but it is not clear what the theoretical value-added of this work is. This article places recent work on scientific knowledge and expertise in a longer-term perspective. The history shows that knowledge has played an important role in International Relations theory since Carr and Morgenthau, but that thinking has been trapped within a simple conceptual framework centered on tracing how knowledge shapes the beliefs and interests of international subjects. This mode of theorizing first entered International Relations via Mannheim and has been further developed by Foucauldian and practice-based approaches since the 1990s. Outlining the history of knowledge from Carr through Haas to the present makes it possible to identify the distinctive contribution of recent work: whereas International Relations has focused on how knowledge shapes subjects such as states and international organizations, recent work by Corry, Sending, and others reorients International Relations to the constitution of governance objects. On the object-centered view, knowledge plays a key role in the construction of the hybrid entities like the economy and the climate that structure the landscape of international politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Twenty years of crisis, 1919-1939, fundamental work for the Theory of International Relations, Edward HalletCarr distinguishes two currents of thought: on the one hand the Idealism or utopian thought and on the other Realism. According to Carr, Idealism was originated in classical liberal thought and after the First World War acquired predominance among bureaucrats, statesmen and intellectuals, who remain in the scope of ideas, without correspondence with reality, in the treatment of international relations and the problems of war and peace. From criticism of Idealism, Carr conceives what he calls Realism. Although it is often concealed, this author's conception refers to the writings of Marx and Lenin. Therefore, the main aim of this text is to demonstrate that the Realism presented by Carr converges to the thought of Marx and Lenin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]