Nanoparticle-based drug delivery via RBC-hitchhiking for the inhibition of lung metastases growth.

Delivery of particle-based theranostic agents via their transportation on the surfaces of red blood cells, commonly referred to as RBC-hitchhiking, has historically been developed as a promising strategy for increasing the extremely poor blood circulation lifetime, primarily, of the large-sized sub-micron agents. Here, we show for the first time that RBC-hitchhiking can be extremely efficient for nanoparticle delivery and tumor treatment even in those cases when no circulation prolongation is observed. Specifically, we demonstrate that RBC-hitchhiking of certain small 100 nm particles, unlike that of the conventional sub-micron ones, can boost the delivery of non-targeted particles to lungs up to a record high value of 120-fold (and up to 40% of the injected dose).

Source-enhanced coalescence of trees in a random forest.

The time evolution of a random graph with varying number of edges and vertices is considered. The edges and vertices are assumed to be added at random by one at a time with different rates. A fresh edge connects either two linked components and forms a new component of larger order g (coalescence of graphs) or increases (by one) the number of edges in a given linked component (cycling).

Exactly solvable model of a coalescing random graph.

An initially empty (no edges) graph of order M evolves by randomly adding one edge at a time. This edge connects either two linked components and forms a new component of larger order (coalescence of graphs) or increases (by one) the number of edges in a given linked component (cycling). Assuming that the vertices of the graph have a finite valence (the number of edges connected with a given vertex is limited) the kinetic equation for the distribution of linked components of the graph over their orders and valences is formulated and solved by applying the generating function method.

Interaction driven subgap spin exciton in the Kondo insulator SmB6.

Using inelastic neutron scattering, we map a 14 meV coherent resonant mode in the topological Kondo insulator SmB6 and describe its relation to the low energy insulating band structure. The resonant intensity is confined to the X and R high symmetry points, repeating outside the first Brillouin zone and dispersing less than 2 meV, with a 5d-like magnetic form factor. We present a slave-boson treatment of the Anderson Hamiltonian with a third neighbor dominated hybridized band structure.

Formation of crownlike and related nanostructures on thin supported gold films irradiated by single diffraction-limited nanosecond laser pulses.

A type of laser-induced surface relief nanostructure-the nanocrown-on thin metallic films was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The nanocrowns, representing a thin corrugated rim of resolidified melt and resembling well-known impact-induced water-crown splashes, were produced by single diffraction-limited nanosecond laser pulses on thin gold films of variable thickness on low-melting copper and high-melting tungsten substrates, providing different transient melting and adhesion conditions for these films. The proposed model of the nanocrown formation, based on a hydrodynamical (thermocapillary Marangoni) surface instability and described by a Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, envisions key steps of the nanocrown appearance and gives qualitative predictions of the acquired nanocrown parameters.