Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 734, Weapon Systems Line of Inquiry: Overview and Blast Overpressure Tool-A Module for Human Body Blast Wave Exposure for Safer Weapons Training.

Introduction: Experiences by service members in recent conflicts and training environments illuminate concerns about the possible effects of blast overpressure (BOP) exposure on brain health. Section 734 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (Public Law 115-91) requires that the Secretary of Defense conducts a longitudinal medical study on blast pressure exposure of members of the Armed Forces during combat and training, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs was assigned responsibility for fulfilling requirements. The study's goal is to improve DoD's understanding of the impact of BOP exposure from weapon systems on service members' brain health and inform policy for risk mitigation, unit readiness, and health care decisions.

Survey on the usage of therapeutic erythrocytapheresis in transfusion services in Italy for the treatment of polycythemia vera, secondary erythrocytosis and hemochromatosis.

Introduction: Erythrocytapheresis, an apheresis treatment which selectively removes red blood cells, is an alternative to therapeutic phlebotomy, over which it has several advantages. Actually there is a high degree of variability in the use of this treatment. This prompted SIdEM (Italian Society of Hemapheresis and Cell Manipulation) to conduct a survey on the use of erythrocytapheresis in the Italian Transfusion Services.

Pleural Effusion Aspirate for Use in 3D Lung Cancer Modeling and Chemotherapy Screening.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, yet most currently used in vitro cancer models are confined to traditional 2D cell culture conditions. Recently; however, innovative 3D models such as tumor tissue equivalents (organoids) have been adopted by researchers to recapitulate tissue architecture and physiology in order to improve disease modeling and drug testing. We have hypothesized that 3D lung organoids, incorporating cells directly from patients, will enable personalized disease modeling and tumor cell characterization compared to traditional 2D cultures.

Biofabricated 3D in vitro model of fibrosis-induced abnormal hepatoblast/biliary progenitors' expansion of the developing liver.

Congenital disorders of the biliary tract are the primary reason for pediatric liver failure and ultimately for pediatric liver transplant needs. Not all causes of these disorders are well understood, but it is known that liver fibrosis occurs in many of those afflicted. The goal of this study is to develop a simple yet robust model that recapitulates physico-mechanical and cellular aspects of fibrosis mediated via hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and their effects on biliary progenitor cells.

Cell Viability Assays in Three-Dimensional Hydrogels: A Comparative Study of Accuracy.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems, such as tumor organoids and multicellular tumor spheroids, have been developed in part as a result of major advances in tissue engineering and biofabrication techniques. 3D cell culture offers great capabilities in drug development, screening, testing, and precision medicine owing to its physiological accuracy. However, since the inception of 3D systems, few methods have been reported to successfully analyze cell viability quantitatively within hydrogel constructs.