Publications by authors named "B K Smith"

Cultivated meat, produced using cell culture technology, is an alternative to conventional meat production that avoids the risks from enteric pathogens associated with animal slaughter and processing. Cultivated meat therefore has significant theoretical microbiological safety advantages, though limited information is available to validate this. This review discusses sources and vectors of microbial contamination throughout cultivated meat production, introduces industry survey data to evaluate current industry practices for monitoring and mitigating these hazards, and highlights future research needs.

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Aging leads to nephron senescence and chronic kidney disease (CKD). In cats, indoxyl sulfate (IxS) has been previously quantified and associated with CKD, and little is known about tubular transporters. Two cohorts of cats aged 6 to 21 years were enrolled.

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Many trials are designed to collect outcomes at or around pre-specified times after randomization. If there is variability in the times when participants are actually assessed, this can pose a challenge to learning the effect of treatment, since not all participants have outcome assessments at the times of interest. Furthermore, observed outcome values may not be representative of all participants' outcomes at a given time.

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Background: The design of smart, photoactivated nanomaterials for targeted drug delivery systems (DDS) has garnered significant research interest due in part to the ability of light to precisely control drug release in specific cells or tissues with high spatial and temporal resolution. The development of effective light-triggered DDS involves mechanisms including photocleavage, photoisomerization, photopolymerization, photosensitization, photothermal phenomena, and photorearrangement, which permit response to ultraviolet (UV), visible (Vis), and/or Near Infrared (NIR) light. This review explores recent advancements in light-responsive small molecules, polymers, and nanocarriers, detailing their underlying mechanisms and utility for drug delivery and/or imaging.

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Background: Differential vulnerability to alcohol contributes to socioeconomic inequities in alcohol-attributable harm. This study aimed to estimate the sex-/gender-specific joint effects of socioeconomic position (SEP) and heavy episodic drinking or volume of alcohol use on 100% alcohol-attributable emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study among 36 900 men and 39 700 women current and former alcohol consumers aged 15-64 from population-representative Canadian Community Health Surveys (2003-2008) linked to administrative ED visit data through 2017 in Ontario and Alberta.

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