Suchergebnisse

This Special Issue focuses on issues of sustainability and its (potential) effect(s) on widening inequalities. It does so through discussions on visual and digital communication, including documentary filmmaking, photojournalism, cartography and citizen multimedia journalism, with a broad geographic span. The issue is comprised of two sets of scholarly approaches. The first set includes perhaps more conventionally arranged articles that align with the Special Issue theme, while the second set is steeped in intersections of theory and practice as short essays, revolving around visualizations that articulate veiled senses of inequalities in sustainability discourses.

Decoupling, defined as the deliberate and state-directed severing of economic ties between the world's two largest economies (the USA and China), is one of the most studied phenomena of contemporary international relations. The growing confrontation between the political systems and military machines of the United States and China extends into the economic sphere and increasingly affects the field of high technology. A number of experts consider the conflict of the modern superpowers for the leading position in the field of the new technologies as a manifestation of techno-nationalism, a new type of mercantilism that plays a key role in industrial policy and world trade of the leading economies of the planet. The article is focused on the new generation of interstate conflict, in which the technological giants act as proxy institutions of U. S. and Chinese state power. The distinctive feature of this new type of conflict is its overtly nonviolent nature. It manifests itself in the use by both sides of tools borrowed from economic sanctions and trade wars of the past. The China — US rivalry in the development and implementation of the latest technologies is a non-military reincarnation of the thermonuclear arms race of the Cold War era. Nowadays the most economically powerful states of the planet, led by the USA, choose instruments of economic coercion to protect the existing status quo in the global system. Such measures allow them to adapt elements of the arms race and power rivalry of past eras to modern conditions.

Photochromic fibers have attracted great attention due to their wide use in areas of military camouflage, safety warnings, anti-counterfeiting, entertainment, etc. Compared with photochromic organic materials, inorganic photochromic tungsten trioxide (WO(3)) materials have been extensively studied, because of their good stability and cost efficiency. In this work, we report the continuous fabrication of photochromic fibers in a simple and low-cost way by dip-coating WO(3)/PVA composites. The prepared photochromic fibers show fast and reversible color switch from light yellow to dark blue upon UV irradiation and infrared heating treatment. The obtained photochromic fibers can be produced on a large scale and be woven into various patterns with good mechanical strength and washability, showing great potential in developing photochromic textiles.

Fang Liu,1,* Wenjun Le,2,* Tianxiao Mei,2 Tiegong Wang,1 Luguang Chen,1 Yi Lei,1 Shaobin Cui,2 Bingdi Chen,2 Zheng Cui,2,3 Chengwei Shao1 1Radiology Department of Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 2Shanghai East Hospital, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 3Department of Pathology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant disease with a 5-year survival rate ,5% mainly due to lack of early diagnosis and effective therapy. In an effort to improve the early diagnostic rate of pancreatic cancer, a nanoprobe Fe3O4@SiO2 modified with anti-mesothelin antibody (A-MFS) was prepared to target cells and tumor tissues highly expressing mesothelin in vitro (human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990) and in vivo (subcutaneously transplanted tumors) studies. The A-MFS probe was successfully prepared and was spherical and uniform with a hydrodynamic diameter between 110 and 130 nm. Cell Counting Kit-8 testing indicated that A-MFS was nontoxic in vitro and in vivo studies. The in vitro study showed that the A-MFS probe specifically targeted SW1990 cells with high mesothelin expression. The in vivo study was conducted in Siemens 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging. The average T2-weighted signal values of the xenografts were 966.533±31.56 before injecting A-MFS and 691.133±56.84 before injecting saline solution. After injection of 0.1 mL A-MFS via nude mouse caudal vein for 2.5 hours, the average T2-weighted signal of the xenograft decreased by 342.533±42.6. The signal value decreased by -61.233±33.9 and -58.7±19.4 after injection of the saline and Fe3O4@SiO2. The decrease of tumor signal by A-MFS was much more significant than that by saline and Fe3O4@SiO2 (P<0.05). The results demonstrated the high stability and nontoxicity of A-MFS, which effectively targeted pancreatic cancer in vitro and in vivo. A-MFS is a promising agent for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Keywords: nanoprobe, mesothelin, Fe3O4@SiO2, pancreatic cancer, targeted imaging

Xin Huang,1,* Chengqi Fan,2,* Huanhuan Zhu,1 Wenjun Le,1 Shaobin Cui,1 Xin Chen,3 Wei Li,4 Fulei Zhang,4 Yong Huang,4 Donglu Shi,1,5 Zheng Cui,1,6 Chengwei Shao,2 Bingdi Chen1 1The Institute for Translational Nanomedicine, Shanghai East Hospital, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; 2Radiology Department of Changhai Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China; 3Department of Thyroid Surgery, The First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin, China; 4International Joint Cancer Institute, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China; 5The Materials Science & Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, College of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Cincinnati, OH, USA; 6Department of Pathology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction: Pancreatic cancer (PC) has a poor prognosis with high mortality, due to the lack of effective early diagnostic and prognostic tools. Materials and methods: In order to target and diagnose PC, we developed a dual-modal imaging probe using Glypican-1 (GPC-1) antibody conjugated with Gd–Au nanoclusters (NCs; Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1). GPC-1 is a type of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan, which is often highly expressed in PC. The probe was successfully prepared with a hydrodynamic diameter ranging from 13.5 to 24.4 nm. Results: Spectral characteristics showed absorption at 280 nm and prominent emission at 650 nm. Confocal microscopic imaging showed effective detection of GPC-1 highly expressed PC cells by Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1, which was consistent with flow cytometry results. In vitro relaxivity characterization demonstrated that the r1 value of the probe was 17.722 s−1 mM−1 Gd, which was almost 4 times higher compared with that of Gd-diethylenetriaminepentacetate (DTPA; r1 value =4.6 s−1 mM−1 Gd). Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1 exhibited similar magnetic resonance (MR) signals when compared to Gd-DTPA even at lower Gd concentrations. Much higher MR signals were registered in PC cells (COLO-357) compared with normal cells (293T). Furthermore, Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1 could effectively detect PC cells in vivo by dual-modal fluorescence imaging/magnetic resonance imaging (FI/MRI) at 30 minutes postinjection. In addition, Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1 did not show significant biotoxicity to normal cells at tested concentrations both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1 has demonstrated to be a promising dual-modal FI/MRI contrast agent for targeted diagnosis of PC. Keywords: pancreatic cancer, Glypican-1, fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, Gd–Au NCs