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Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) plays a critical role in diagnosing and monitoring various vascular diseases. Achieving high-sensitivity detection of vascular abnormalities in CE-MRA depends on the properties of contrast agents. In contrast to clinically used gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), the new generation of ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles-based contrast agents have high relaxivity, long blood circulation time, easy surface functionalization, and high biocompatibility, hence showing promising prospects in CE-MRA. This review aims to comprehensively summarize the advancements in ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles-enhanced MRA for detecting vascular diseases. Additionally, this review also discusses the future clinical translational potential of ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles-based contrast agents for vascular imaging. By investigating the current status of research and clinical applications, this review attempts to outline the progress, challenges, and future directions of using ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles to drive the field of CE-MRA into a new frontier of accuracy and diagnostic efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a crucial public health issue and a major cause of liver disease, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. At present, orally administered small molecule drugs, such as nucleoside / nucleotide analogues, are recommended as the first‐line treatment for HBV. However, the therapeutic efficacy of these drugs is hindered by off‐target toxicity caused by the whole‐body permeation distribution of these oral drugs. As an emerging drug delivery technology, systemically administered nanocarriers can enhance the aqueous solubility and stability of encapsulated drugs, prolong circulation times, and deliver them efficiently to the liver, showing great promise for increasing the safety and efficacy of small molecule drugs. Furthermore, nanocarriers also accelerate the clinical translation of new therapies, such as nucleic acids and vaccines. This review article highlights the progress of nanoparticle delivery systems in anti‐HBV therapeutics and discusses the opportunities and challenges for the future development of anti‐HBV nanotherapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selective oxidation of alcohols has drawn significant attention in heterogeneous catalysis with the increasing use of Pickering interfacial catalysis (PIC) for green transformations of alcohols. However, it is still highly desirable to design and develop a solid catalyst with easy separation and recycling, made from abundant resources through a simple synthesis route, for the selective oxidation of alcohols. In this study, ferrite nanoparticles, synthesized via a hydrothermal process, were employed to act as a stabilizer and catalyst in PIC for the oxidation of benzyl alcohol using H2O2. The ferrite nanoparticles exhibited higher catalytic performance in PIC than in acetonitrile. The turnover number (TON) of the nanocatalyst in PIC was found to be 1.5–4 times higher than that in acetonitrile, and the reaction constant in PIC (kPIC = 0.712 h−1) was almost twice that in acetonitrile (kCH3CN = 0.310 h−1) for MnFe2O4 nanoparticles. Moreover, other alcohols could also be oxidized with moderately high conversion and selectivity in PIC. Significantly, the ferrite nanocatalyst could be easily separated from PIC using a magnet for reuse, achieving 88% BzOH conversion after five cycles. The use of hazardous organic solvents was avoided in PIC, making it a more advanced, green and sustainable reaction system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detrital composition of sandstone is the most important data for siliciclastic studies including sandstone classification, provenance analysis, oil and gas exploration. A large amount of detrital composition data has accumulated over the past decades, however, they are scattered in publications without unified standards. Here we constructed a global dataset of detrital components of sandstones from 646 peer‐reviewed publications using Gazzi‐Dickinson method. A total of 19,861 samples from Precambrian to Quaternary are involved in this dataset. For each sample, we present details on reference information, geographic information, geological background, depositional age and the original data. It is a high‐quality dataset for the information on each sandstone sample from different studies which was standardized. The dataset can be used widely, such as for stratigraphic comparison, provenance analysis, exploring the general laws of the source‐to‐sink process and geological engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that ionic surfactant micelles can induce depletion forces between oil droplets, whereas the depletion forces induced by nonionic surfactant micelles cannot be measured. Nonionic surfactants are usually mixed with ionic surfactants to induce depletion forces. Here, we report that mixing of nonionic polymer micelles and inorganic salt is also an effective method for inducing depletion between oil droplets. Optical tweezers are used to measure the interaction forces between oil droplets in the aqueous solution of polyoxyethylene–polyoxypropylene–polyoxyethylene nonionic polymer. Without salts, there is no depletion force between oil droplets regardless of whether the concentration of polymer is above or below the critical micelle concentration (CMC). This result is consistent with literature that the oil drops adsorbed by the nonionic polymers were stable against coalescence. However, the depletion force between oil droplets generates when NaCl is added, and the concentration of Pluronic F127 is above or equal to the CMC. This suggests that salts can enhance the depletion force induced by nonionic polymer micelles. These findings have significant implications for the stability of emulsions in the food, oilfield, and medicine industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, oil-water separation materials with special wettability surfaces have attracted intense attention. In this work, amphiphilic magnetic nanoparticles of Fe3O4@TiO2 are prepared by the homogeneous precipitation method. The prepared nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Dynamic light scattering, Zeta potential and contact angle. The prepared magnetic nanoparticles can effectively separate the simulated oily wastewater prepared with 0# diesel. The oil removal performance with magnetic nanoparticles Fe3O4@TiO2 is evaluated by a handheld oil meter after rotating at 250 rpm for a certain time. Results show that the prepared material has the best oil-water separation performance and maintains high magnetism when the weight ratio of TiO2 is 80%. When the dosage is 0.125% (w/v), the oil removal rate is up to 97% after 30 minutes of addition. These prepared materials are suitable for oil-water separation under neutral and acidic conditions and have good recycling performance. This indicates that the prepared amphiphilic magnetic nanoparticles have practical applications in the treatment of oily wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have leveraged magnetic nanomaterials (MNMs) to explore neural circuits and treat neurological diseases via an approach known as MNMs‐mediated neuromodulation. Here, the magneto‐responsive effects of MNMs to an external magnetic field are manipulated to activate or inhibit neuronal cell activity. In this way, MNMs can serve as a nano‐mediator, by converting electromagnetic energy into heat, mechanical force/torque, and an electrical field at nanoscale. These physicochemical effects can stimulate ion channels and activate precise signaling pathways involved in neuromodulation. In this review, we outline the various ion channels and MNMs that have been applied to MNMs‐mediated neuromodulation. We highlight the recent advances made in this technique and its potential applications, and then discuss the current challenges and future directions of MNMs‐mediated neuromodulation. Our aim is to reveal the potential of MNMs to treat neurological diseases in the clinical setting. This article is categorized under:Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging TechnologiesNanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in BiologyTherapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Neurological Disease [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]