Monte Verde, a peri‑urban squatter community near San Pedro Sula, virtually eliminated Aedes aegypti production in all known larval habitats: wells; water storage containers including pilas (open concrete water tanks used for laundry), 200-liter drums, 1000-liter plastic "cisterns," buckets; and objects collecting rainwater. The project began in 2016 when Monte Verde was overrun with dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. During more than a year of experimentation, Monte Verde residents crafted an effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly toolkit that was inexpensive but required full community participation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we investigated the influence of three extracellular pH (pHex) values (i.e., 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles have been used in many biomedical approaches. The toxicity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on mammalian cells was published recently. Though, little is known about the viability of human cells after treatment with Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicromixer technology was used to prepare polymeric vesicles (Pluronic® L-121) dual loaded with the anti-cancer drug camptothecin and magnetic nanoparticles. Successful incorporation of the magnetic nanoparticles was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Dynamic light scattering measurements showed a relatively narrow size distribution of the hybrid polymersomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMagnetic hybrid assemblies of Ag and Fe3O4 nanoparticles with biocompatibly immobilized myoglobin (Mb) were designed to detect and capture toxic targets (NO2-, CN-, and H2O2). Mb was covalently attached to chitosan-coated magnetic silver hybrid nanoparticles (M-Ag-C) via glutaraldehyde that serves as a linker for the amine groups of Mb and chitosan. As verified by surface-enhanced resonance Raman (SERR) spectroscopy, this immobilization strategy preserves the native structure of the bound Mb as well as the binding affinity for small molecules.
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