Self-organization Process Research Articles

Advances in 3D Culture Models to Study Exosomes in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer, a leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, exhibits distinct subtypes with varying pathological, genetic, and clinical characteristics. Despite advancements in breast cancer treatments, its histological and molecular heterogeneity pose a significant clinical challenge. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a highly aggressive subtype lacking targeted therapeutics, adds to the complexity of breast cancer treatment. Recent years have witnessed the development of advanced 3D culture technologies, such as organoids and spheroids, providing more representative models of healthy human tissue and various malignancies. These structures, resembling organs in structure and function, are generated from stem cells or organ-specific progenitor cells via self-organizing processes. Notably, 3D culture systems bridge the gap between 2D cultures and in vivo studies, offering a more accurate representation of in vivo tumors' characteristics. Exosomes, small nano-sized molecules secreted by breast cancer and stromal/cancer-associated fibroblast cells, have garnered significant attention. They play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication, influencing tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis. The 3D culture environment enhances exosome efficiency compared to traditional 2D cultures, impacting the transfer of specific cargoes and therapeutic effects. Furthermore, 3D exosomes have shown promise in improving therapeutic outcomes, acting as potential vehicles for cancer treatment administration. Studies have demonstrated their role in pro-angiogenesis and their innate therapeutic potential in mimicking cellular therapies without side effects. The 3D exosome model holds potential for addressing challenges associated with drug resistance, offering insights into the mechanisms underlying multidrug resistance and serving as a platform for drug screening. This review seeks to emphasize the crucial role of 3D culture systems in studying breast cancer, especially in understanding the involvement of exosomes in cancer pathology.

Collective dynamics of swarmalators with higher-order interactions

AbstractHigher-order interactions shape collective dynamics, but how they affect transitions between different states in swarmalator systems is yet to be determined. To that effect, we here study an analytically tractable swarmalator model that incorporates both pairwise and higher-order interactions, resulting in four distinct collective states: async, phase wave, mixed, and sync states. We show that even a minute fraction of higher-order interactions induces abrupt transitions from the async state to the phase wave and the sync state. We also show that higher-order interactions facilitate an abrupt transition from the phase wave to the sync state bypassing the intermediate mixed state. Moreover, elevated levels of higher-order interactions can sustain the presence of phase wave and sync state, even when pairwise interactions lean towards repulsion. The insights gained from these findings unveil self-organizing processes that hold the potential to explain sudden transitions between various collective states in numerous real-world systems.

The mechanism of forming a roughness surface through a liquid-phase induction process between fiber and colloid

Self-organization between fiber and colloid in a liquid phase induction process is an effective method to modify the electrospinning fiber membrane (EFM). However, how to obtain the desired morphology of smooth surface or rough surface by liquid phase induction process is a challenge. In this study, the self-organization morphology between EFM and colloid solution by liquid phase induction process was investigated. The capillary action of the EFM caused the solvent/non-solvent solution to form microfluidics on the EFM during the liquid phase induction process and caused the colloid to be uniformly dispersed. The capillary action of the EFM created a confined space that only limited the flow of the solution and colloid, but not the volatilization of the solution during the liquid phase induction process. The EFM had a reversible respiration process, the surface free energy and pore volume of EFM were related to the reversible respiration, and the respiration process of EFM was related to the self-organization process during the liquid phase induction. The energy consumption mechanism of self-organization morphology between colloid with EFM in the confined space during the liquid phase induction process was related to the effects of colloid particle size, the reversible respiration process of EFM, and the surface free energy of EFM. Among the mechanism of factors to form a roughness surface, the reversible respiration process plays a more important role than the surface free energy of EFM, pore volume of the EFM and Re of the liquid. Furthermore, the rough surface morphology preferred to form on the EFM which had high surface free energy than low surface free energy.

Dissipative scaling of development and aging in multicellular organisms

Evolution, self-replication and ontogenesis are highly dynamic, irreversible and self-organizing processes dissipating energy. While progress has been made to decipher the role of thermodynamics in cellular fission, it is not yet clear how entropic balances shape organism growth and aging. This paper derives a general dissipation theory for the life history of organisms. It implies a self-regulated energy dissipation facilitating exponential growth within a hierarchical and entropy lowering self-organization. The theory predicts ceilings in energy expenditures imposed by geometric constrains, which promote thermal optimality during development, and a dissipative scaling across organisms consistent with ecological scaling laws combining isometric and allometric terms. The theory also illustrates how growing organisms can tolerate damage through continuous extension and production of new dissipative structures low in entropy. However, when organisms reduce their rate of cell division and reach a steady adult state, they become thermodynamically unstable, increase internal entropy by accumulating damage, and age.

Identifying levers of urban neighbourhood transformation using serious games

Growing urban population and contemporary urban systems lock-in unsustainable urban development pathways, deteriorating the living quality of urban dwellers. The systemic complexity of these challenges renders it difficult to find solutions using existing planning processes. Alternatively, transformative planning processes are radical, take place on multiple scales, and are often irreversible; therefore, require the integration of local stakeholders’ perspectives, which are often contradictory. We identify perceived levers of urban transformative change using a serious game to facilitate the integration of these perspectives through simulating neighbourhood transformation processes in two European case studies. Building on existing transformation frameworks, we organize, conceptualize, and compare the effectiveness of these levers through demonstrating their interactions with different scales of transformation. Specifically, drawing from close commonalities between large-scale (Three Spheres of Transformation) and place-based (Place-making) transformation frameworks, we show how these interactions can help to develop recommendations to unlock urban transformative change. Results show that access to participation is a key lever enabling urban transformative change. It appears to be mid-level effective to unlock urban transformative change through interactions with the political sphere of transformation and procedural element of Place-making. Ultimately, however, most effective are those levers that interact with all scales of transformation. For example, by engaging a combination of levers including access to participation, public spaces, parking, place-characteristics and place-identity. These findings could be operationalized by self-organized transformation processes focused on repurposing hard infrastructure into public spaces, whilst ensuring continuity of place-based social- and physical features. Local stakeholders could further use such processes to better understand and engage with their individual roles in the transformative process, because interactions with the personal scale, i.e., personal sphere of transformation appear paramount to unlock urban transformative change.

Caring and commoning in political society: Insights from the Scugnizzo Liberato of Naples

Recent research has highlighted the connection between commoning processes and the creation of new infrastructures of care in the areas of Southern Europe which were most affected by austerity policies and by the connected crisis of social reproduction. The objective of this paper is to shed new light on the caring practices organised through and within urban commons by using the theoretical lenses provided by Subaltern Studies, which also explored processes of collective self-organisation, the development of solidarity ties and reclamation of social welfare. The main theoretical reference is provided by the work of Partha Chatterjee on ‘The politics of the governed’. The discussion is conducted through the analysis of the caring practices organised within the Scugnizzo Liberato, one of the urban commons of the city of Naples, located in Southern Italy, investigated through a prolonged process of co-research.

Self-Organization Processes of Orthodox Youth in the 1970s

This article explores the phenomenon of religious revival among the Orthodox youth in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. The author argues that during this period, some processes took place within a segment of the intellectual Soviet youth that could be described as the Soviet religious renaissance. This phase coincided with Brezhnev’s rise to power and a temporary easing of anti-religious persecution. In the 1960s–70s, the USSR passed several legislative acts that improved the conditions for believers and religious organizations, granting them comparatively greater rights. However, the state retained the authority to intervene in the Church’s internal affairs and rigorously control its activities, leading to a decline in the number of Orthodox parishes from year to year. Nevertheless, a religious-oriented vector was forming in the minds and souls of the thinking Soviet youth. In the 1970s, several movements emerged, actively seeking forms of spiritual life. One notable phenomenon of religious dissidence was the preaching activities of priest Dmitry Dudko. In 1974, followers of Father Dmitry organized the enlightening “Ogorodnikov Seminar”, named after one of its founders. The seminar studied theological and philosophical literature, which its participants struggled to obtain. The seminar later began publishing the journal “Obshchina” (Community). Simultaneously with the Moscow christian seminar, the religious and philosophical Goricheva-Krivulin Seminar emerged in Leningrad. The article delves into the history of Orthodox samizdat (self-published works and underground press) in the 1970s, particularly the journals “Obshchina” (Community) “Veche” (Popular Assembly), and “Moskovsky Sbornik” (Moscow Collection). The Orthodox revival of the 1970s culminated in the early 1980s due to severe repression by Soviet authorities. Typically, those representatives aligned with Russian patriotic ideologies received the longest prison sentences. The author concludes that the ideas of nationally-oriented, patriotic figures and publicists remain relevant to this day.

Incorporating spatial heterogeneity to model spontaneous and self-organized urban growth

Contemporary investigations into cellular automata (CA) modeling often neglect the considerable influence of spatial heterogeneity on both spontaneous and self-organized processes of urban growth. In this research, we combined a partitioned quantity control strategy, the geographically weighted artificial neural network (GWANN), and a neighborhood size-adaptive approach to formulate a CA framework for simulating spatially heterogeneous spontaneous and self-organized urban growth (SHSS-CA). We examined the simulation performance of SHSS-CA in Beijing, Shanghai, and the Pearl River Delta during 2000–2010 for calibration and 2010–2020 for validation. The findings demonstrate that incorporating spatial heterogeneity enhances CA performance in approximately 90% of regions. Introducing spatially heterogenous spontaneous or self-organized urban growth rules alone can improve the simulation performance of CA. Furthermore, their integration leverages the strengths of both rules and makes SHSS-CA the optimal choice, resulting in a notable improvement in the figure of merit (FoM)—approximately 9% during calibration and around 5% during validation—when compared with ANN-CA. This study contributes new methodologies for developing urban growth simulation rules and has the capacity to effectively help urban planners understand and analyze the complicated urban growth processes.

A network analysis of early arthropod evolution and the potential of the primitive

It is often thought that the primitive is simpler, and that the complex is generated from the simple by some process of self-assembly or self-organization, which ultimately consists of the spontaneous and fortuitous collision of elementary units. This idea is included in the Darwinian theory of evolution, to which is added the competitive mechanism of natural selection. To test this view, we studied the early evolution of arthropods. Twelve groups of arthropods belonging to the Burgess Shale, Orsten Lagerstätte, and extant primitive groups were selected, their external morphology abstracted and codified in the language of network theory. The analysis of these networks through different network measures (network parameters, topological descriptors, complexity measures) was used to carry out a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), which allowed us to obtain an evolutionary tree with distinctive/novel features. The analysis of centrality measures revealed that these measures decreased throughout the evolutionary process, and led to the creation of the concept of evolutionary developmental potential. This potential, which measures the capacity of a morphological unit to generate changes in its surroundings, is concomitantly reduced throughout the evolutionary process, and demonstrates that the primitive is not simple but has a potential that unfolds during this process. This means for us the first empirical evolutionary evidence of our theory of evolution as a process of unfolding.

Microplastic leachates inhibit small-scale self-organization in mussel beds

Self-organized spatial patterns are increasingly recognized for their contribution to ecosystem functioning. They can improve the ecosystem's ability to respond to perturbation and thus increase its resilience to environmental stress. Plastic pollution has now emerged as major threat to aquatic and terrestrial biota. Under laboratory conditions, we tested whether plastic leachates from pellets collected in the intertidal can impair small-scale, spatial self-organization and byssal threads production of intertidal mussels and whether the effect varied depending on where the pellets come from. Specifically, leachates originating from plastic pellets collected from relatively pristine and polluted areas respectively impaired and inhibited the ability of mussels to self-organize at small-scale and to produce byssal threads compared to control conditions (i.e., seawater without leaching solution). Limitations to natural self-organizing processes and threads formation may translate to a declined capacity of natural ecosystems to avoid tipping points and to a reduced restoration success of disturbed ecosystems.

Light-controlled morphological development of self-organizing bioinspired nanocomposites.

Nature's intricate biominerals inspire fundamental questions on self-organization and guide innovations towards functional materials. While advances in synthetic self-organization have enabled many levels of control, generating complex shapes remains difficult. Specifically, controlling morphologies during formation at the single micro/nanostructure level is the key challenge. Here, we steer the self-organization of barium carbonate nanocrystals and amorphous silica into complex nanocomposite morphologies by photogeneration of carbon dioxide (CO2) under ultraviolet (UV) light. Using modulations in the UV light intensity, we select the growth mode of the self-organization process inwards or outwards to form helical and coral-like morphologies respectively. The spatiotemporal control over CO2 photogeneration allows formation of different morphologies on pre-assigned locations, switching between different growth modes-to form for instance a coral on top of a helix or vice versa, and subtle sculpting and patterning of the nanocomposites during formation. These findings advance the understanding of these versatile self-organization processes and offer new prospects for tailored designs of functional materials using photochemically driven self-organization.

From partial to complete: Wing- and tail-feather moult sequence and intensity depend on species, life-cycle stage, and moult completeness in passerines

Passerines moult during various life-cycle stages. Some of these moults involve the retention of a variable quantity of wing and tail feathers. This prompts the question whether these partial moults are just arrested complete moults or follow different processes. To address it, I investigated whether three relevant features remain constant across partial and complete moults: 1) moult sequence (order of activation) within feather tracts (e.g., consecutive outward moult of primaries) and among tracts (e.g., starting with marginal coverts, followed by greater coverts second, tertials, etc.); 2) dynamics of moult intensity (amount of feathers growing along the moult progress); and 3) protection of wing quills by overlapping fully grown feathers. To study the effect of moult completeness on these three features, I classified moults of 435 individuals from 61 species in 3 groups: i) complete and partial, ii) without and iii) with retention of feathers within tracts. To study the effect of life-cycle stage, I used postbreeding, postjuvenile, and prebreeding moults. I calculated phylogenetically corrected means to establish feather-moult sequence within tracts. I applied linear regression to analyse moult sequence among tracts, and polynomial regression to study the dynamics of moult intensity as moult progresses. Sequence and intensity dynamics of partial moults tended resemble those of the complete moult as moult completeness increased. Sequence within and among feather tracts tended to shift as moult intensity within tracts and number of tracts increased. Activation of primaries advanced in relation to the other feather tracts as number of moulted primaries increased. Tertial quills were protected by the innermost greater covert regardless of moult completeness. These findings suggest that moult is a self-organised process that adjusts to the degree of completeness of plumage renewal. However, protection of quills and differences among species and between postjuvenile- and prebreeding-moult sequences also suggest an active control linked to feather function, including protection and signalling.

Modeling quasar variability through self-organizing map-based neural process

Conditional Neural Process (QNPy) has shown to be a good tool for modeling quasar light curves. However, given the complex nature of the source and hence the data represented by light curves, processing could be time-consuming. In some cases, accuracy is not good enough for further analysis. In an attempt to upgrade QNPy, we examine the effect of the prepossessing quasar light curves via the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm on modeling a large number of quasar light curves. After applying SOM on the SWIFT/BAT data and modeling curves from several clusters, results show the Conditional Neural Process performs better after the SOM clustering. We conclude that the SOM clustering of quasar light curves could be a beneficial prepossessing method for QNPy.

Cooperative Event-Triggered Fuzzy-Neural Multivariable Control With Multitask Learning for Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Process

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) is an industrial process with multiple mechanism reactions, which has strong coupling and time-varying dynamics. It is extremely difficult to design a feasible multivariable controller for MSWI process due to the complex composition of municipal solid waste and fluctuation of calorific value. To solve these problems, a cooperative event-triggered fuzzy-neural multivariable controller with multi-task learning (CETFNMC-MTL) is proposed to realize the adaptive multivariable control of MSWI process. First, a fuzzy-neural multivariable controller is established to control furnace temperature and oxygen content synchronously. Second, a dynamic self-organizing mechanism based on multi-task learning is designed, which splits and merges neurons by calculating the dynamic time warping distance and cumulative contribution of neurons in the continuous time. Third, a cooperative event-triggered mechanism is introduced to improve controller update efficiency while reducing mechanical wear and computational burden. Then, the stability of parameters learning and structure self-organizing process is analyzed to guarantee the successful application of CETFNMC-MTL. Finally, the effectiveness of the controller is tested with process data from an MSWI plant in Beijing, China. The results show that the proposed CETFNMC-MTL has adaptive learning ability, while reducing energy consumption and improving control accuracy.

Local Governance Structures and Their Role in Mobilising Community Action: A Case of Recreational Facilities in Mining Towns in the Copperbelt Province

This paper explores the role of local governance structures at community level in mobilising community action in the redevelopment of recreational facilities in former mine townships in the Copperbelt Province. These facilities are experiencing a management quandary resulting from the privatisation of the mining conglomerate, ZCCM, in the late 1990s. This paper argues that every society has a way of reorganising itself when such vacuums in management occur. Growing literature places this research agenda within “self-organising”, “co-production”, “self-managing”, etc. Underpinning these self-organising processes are local governance structures devised by communities themselves, which include various actors being involved in the decision making and management processes for community development. In modern societies, the role of these structures is often underplayed and only realised when a vacuum appears in the management as is the case for formerly mine-owned recreational facilities in Copperbelt towns. A multi-case study approach was adopted in this mixed method research to determine the communities’ ability to regenerate the dilapidated recreation centres. The research found that the communities had the social capital required to drive the regeneration process, exhibited by the benevolence shown to each other, the willingness to participate in activities at the recreation centres and the availability of self-organising associations. Additionally, the local structures were able to self-organise and participate in decision making and management required for successful community development.

Design Management of an Innovative Model of Sustainable Development and Regional Features in Conditions of Global Turbulence

The article’s purpose is to apply design management in forming an innovative model of sustainable development with adaptation to regional features in conditions of global turbulence. Indicators and indicators for evaluating the quality of functioning of the model of sustainable development laid down in the goals of sustainable development for the regions of Ukraine with their systematization and certain additions are proposed. Based on the results of the calculations, we will receive the results of achievements in the field of implementation of the model of sustainable development of the Black Sea region of Ukraine both in terms of the general economic, social, and ecological components and in terms of indicators, which will create prerequisites for making management decisions regarding the revision of goals, improvement of influence tools, optimization of transformational processes. The results of the evaluation of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of the Black Sea Region of Ukraine made it possible to propose the design of an innovative model of sustainable development of the region in conditions of global turbulence. The design management of the innovative model of sustainable development covers the main principles, criteria, mechanisms, and tools for implementing sustainable development goals in the regions, which can be integrated into the management systems of state and regional projects at different levels. The model of sustainable development of the region is focused on ensuring the continued functioning of the regional system based on self-organization processes based on the gradual improvement of potential technologies and management mechanisms, taking into account existing achievements and shortcomings through the establishment of horizontal and vertical communications and the development of adaptive qualities of its components.

Scientific and Pedagogical Community of Russia Universities as an Object of Resource Mobilisation

The article is devoted to a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of mobilisational management of the resources of the scientific and pedagogical community (SPC) of Russian universities. The focus was placed on the concepts of NPS resource capacity and its mobilisation as one of the models of university management. The purpose of the article is to reveal the potential of theories of resource mobilisation, social community, resource concepts in the conceptualisation of the notion of mobilisation of NPS resource сapacity. The authors consider the main ideas and theses of theories developed in branches of sociological knowledge other than the sociology of higher education, and adapt them to the context of university management of the NPS. The authors´ interpretation of the concept of NPS as a social community and socio-professional community has been updated in the light of resource concepts. The content of the concept of NPS resource capacity is discussed as a set of opportunities into which a given university community converts the means and methods of its professional activities, as well as the associated properties inherent in scientific and pedagogical workers as a socio-professional community. One of the main results of the article is related to the substantiation of the approach to the classification of NPS resources.
 It is proposed to identify and take into account in university management practices the following five blocks of resources - socio-demographic (quantitative, age, gender resources); scientific research (research, publication, temporal resources); pedagogical (educational and pedagogical resources, advanced scientific and pedagogical qualifications, mentoring); resources for interaction between scientific and pedagogical workers (RPWs) and scientific teams (communication, resource of scientific schools and teams); moral-symbolic (symbolic and moral-ideological resources). Mobilisational university management is considered as a strategy for managing research and development staff, which involves concentrating the resources and efforts of academic staff on strategic directions and tasks of university development. As prerequisites for such a management approach, it is substantiated to take into account and update the processes of self-organisation of the NPS as a complex and highly professional community, to restore understanding, trust, and solidarity between it and the administrative and managerial corps of universities. The question is raised about the actors in the mobilisation of NPS resources, who must have a deep knowledge of the sources, features and patterns of functioning of the resources of the academic community. In conclusion, the article discusses the issue of demand in university management for a scientifically based approach to mobilisation management of NPS resources and the readiness of the administrative and managerial apparatus to use it.

Energy Dissipation in Tribological Stressed Greases

Lubricating greases that are subject to a continuous friction process are in a non-equilibrium state. In processes far from equilibrium, there is a possibility that dissipative structures will form. In this work, the conjecture is pursued that this is also possible in loaded grease films. On the one hand, the shear process is considered in interaction with structural degradation, and on the other hand, the behavior of energy dissipation mechanisms is investigated. In the two models presented, it is shown that there are conditions under which it is possible to trigger self-organization processes. The next step must be the development of suitable experiments.

Depositional dynamics and vegetation succession in self-organizing processes of deltaic marshes

Global deltaic marshes are currently facing a multitude of pressures, including insufficient sediment supply, rising sea levels, and habitat loss. Consequently, unraveling the internal regulatory mechanisms within deltaic marshes is of paramount importance. Here, we harness years of observational data and high-resolution numerical models to uncover depositional dynamics and vegetation succession in self-organizing processes of deltaic marshes. Our findings indicate that the colonization of salt marsh vegetation triggered a robust phase of growth in the initial stages of river deltas formation. However, as vertical accretion intensifies and inundation decreases, the delta is driven towards a state of critical slowing down due to insufficient sediment supply. We have captured a pivotal turning point in the evolution of deltaic marshes. In accordance with the critical submergence threshold we have established, when the inundation time of deltaic marshes exceeds 0.97 h/d, these salt marsh platforms sustain a higher annual growth rate. Conversely, when the inundation time of deltaic marshes falls below 0.97 h/d, the interannual accretion rate continues to decrease. Our research reveals that, in the absence of human disturbances, the deposition rate in deltaic marshes transitions from growth to decline. During this period, the delta undergoes an interesting succession of pioneer salt marshes (Suaeda salsa) and high-elevation salt marshes (Phragmites australis). Even without reductions in sediment input due to human activities, the vertical deposition rate within deltaic marshes will still shift from acceleration to deceleration under the influence of this internal negative feedback regulation. This adaptive capacity of marshes may foreshadow that when observing a slowdown in vertical accretion on deltaic marsh platforms, it cannot be solely attributed to reductions in sediment input caused by human activities.

Synthesis of micro- and nano-sized zinc sulfide crystallites by the method of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis

The paper presents the results that demonstrate how ZnS crystallites of different sizes can be obtained by the method of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). The SHS is possible due to an exothermic reactions occurring in mixtures of Zn and S powders, due to a large amount of heat released (enthalpy of formation being 202 kJ/mol). Pressed powders of Zn and S are placed in a stoichiometric ratio into a reactor filled with Ar or N under a pressure of P>0.5 MPa. After initiated by ignition, the chemical reaction propagates through the mixture to produce a sample in the form of an ingot. ZnS crystallites with a characteristic size of ~ 30 μm are obtained in the traditional solid-state reaction of the SHS. Аfter the passage of the combustion wave, the reaction of the components continues in parallel with crystallization processes, which causes the formation of an active medium where self-organization processes occur. Sometimes, abnormally large ("giant") crystallites with length ~ 1 mm, thickness 0.1-0.2 mm, and regularly-shaped spatial structures are observed. The size of synthesized zinc sulfide crystallites can be changed with a dispersant, NH4Cl. When 5 wt.% of the dispersant is introduced, the monolithic sample is polycrystalline ZnS with a characteristic grain size of ~ 40 μm, and when 7 wt.% is introduced, the grain size decreases to 20 μm. As the concentration of the dispersant is increased to 10 wt. %, the synthesized material becomes loose, the characteristic grain size decreasing to 5-10 μm. At concentrations greater than 10 wt. %, powder-like ZnS is formed. The SHS method makes it possible to obtain meso- and nano-sized ZnS, with grain sizes of order 50 – 100 nm and 2 – 50 nm, respectively, in two ways. The first one consists in the condensation of the substance’s vapor in a rarefied inert atmosphere. When, during the SPS, the pressure of the inert gas changes in the interval from 40 to 400 Pa, a part of the reactants in the form of steam escapes from the ampoule into the reactor bulk. When the steam particles collide with the inert gas atoms, they quickly lose their kinetic energy to form particles with sizes of 2 to 100 nm. To form particles of the required size, it is necessary to adjust the pressure of the inert gas in the reactor. The second method for obtaining nanoparticles by the SBC is based on the use of an inert diluent, which prevents the growth of the forming particles. The main requirement for the diluent material is its inertness to both the reagents in the charge and the synthesized material. The effect of changing the pressure of the inert gas on the size of the obtained nanoparticles manifests itself both directly and indirectly—through the size of the condensation zone. As the gas pressure increases, its density increases, heat removal increases, the rate of crystallization center formation in the gas phase decreases, but the rate of crystal growth increases. As a result, so does the size of the resulting particles. The shape of nanoparticles obtained by this method depends on their size. Nanoparticles of size <20 nm have a shape close to spherical, which is a result changing the relative fraction of the surface energy in the total energy of a nanoparticle as its size decreases. Larger-size particles are faceted.