Elucidating the Role of Electrochemically Formed LiF in Discharge and Aging of Li-CF Batteries.

Fifty years after its introduction, the lithium-carbon monofluoride (Li-CF) battery still has the highest cell-level specific energy demonstrated in a practical cell format. However, few studies have analyzed how the main electrochemical discharge product, LiF, evolves during the discharge and cell rest periods. To fill this gap in understanding, we investigated molecular-level and interfacial changes in CF electrodes upon the discharge and aging of Li-CF cells, revealing the role of LiF beyond that of a simple discharge product.

Nurse Practitioners in a Canadian Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital: A Description of Roles and Scope of Practice.

The nurse practitioner role is strongly suited to meet the needs of children with complex developmental conditions in pediatric rehabilitation settings as they have a unique combination of clinical expertise. To meet the increasing demands in a large Canadian pediatric rehabilitation hospital, the NP role was implemented in several clinical program settings to improve access to care. This paper describes the contributions of NPs to nine specialized inpatient and outpatient programs in NP-led, collaborative NP and physician or interagency care team models of practice.

Safety and Efficacy of Robotic vs Open Liver Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Importance: Long-term oncologic outcomes of robotic surgery remain a hotly debated topic in surgical oncology, but sparse data have been published thus far.

Objective: To analyze short- and long-term outcomes of robotic liver resection (RLR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from Western high-volume centers to assess the safety, reproducibility, and oncologic efficacy of this technique.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study evaluated the outcomes of patients receiving RLR vs open liver resection (OLR) for HCC between 2010 and 2020 in 5 high-volume centers.

Insulin expression and C-peptide in type 1 diabetes subjects implanted with stem cell-derived pancreatic endoderm cells in an encapsulation device.

These preliminary data from an ongoing first-in-human phase 1/2, open-label study provide proof-of-concept that pluripotent stem cell-derived pancreatic endoderm cells (PEC-01) engrafted in type 1 diabetes patients become islet cells releasing insulin in a physiologically regulated fashion. In this study of 17 subjects aged 22-57 with type 1 diabetes, PEC-01 cells were implanted subcutaneously in VC-02 macroencapsulation devices, allowing for direct vascularization of the cells. Engraftment and insulin expression were observed in 63% of VC-02 units explanted from subjects at 3-12 months post-implant.

Towards access for all: 1st Working Group Report for the Global Gene Therapy Initiative (GGTI).

The gene and cell therapy field saw its first approved treatments in Europe in 2012 and the United States in 2017 and is projected to be at least a $10B USD industry by 2025. Despite this success, a massive gap exists between the companies, clinics, and researchers developing these therapeutic approaches, and their availability to the patients who need them. The unacceptable reality is a geographic exclusion of low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) in gene therapy development and ultimately the provision of gene therapies to patients in LMIC.

Mothers' Perceived Barriers to and Recommendations for Health Care Appointment Keeping for Children Who Have Cerebral Palsy.

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) require ongoing rehabilitation services to address complex health care needs. Attendance at appointments ensures continuity of care and improves health and well-being. The study's aim was to gain insight into mothers' perspectives of the factors associated with nonattendance.

Would you like to leave Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen? An empirical analysis of migration effect in China.

This study aims to estimate the migration effect of the overall samples and different flowing scales for the floating population from the perspective of personal wages. Although we used both the OLS and PSM methods to estimate the migration effect, we found that the PSM method was preferred in the study of migration as a result of the selection bias. The empirical results show that there is a significant difference in wage before and after migration.

LASIK for the Correction of High Hyperopic Astigmatism With Epithelial Thickness Monitoring.

Purpose: To evaluate outcomes of high hyperopic LASIK using the MEL 80 excimer laser (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany).

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 830 consecutive high hyperopic LASIK procedures using the MEL 80 excimer laser and either the VisuMax femtosecond laser (Carl Zeiss Meditec) or zero compression Hansatome microkeratome (Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, NY). Inclusion criteria were attempted hyperopic correction of +4.

Immunogenicity of human embryonic stem cell-derived beta cells.

Aims/hypothesis: To overcome the donor shortage in the treatment of advanced type 1 diabetes by islet transplantation, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) show great potential as an unlimited alternative source of beta cells. hESCs may have immune privileged properties and it is important to determine whether these properties are preserved in hESC-derived cells.

Methods: We comprehensively investigated interactions of both innate and adaptive auto- and allo-immunity with hESC-derived pancreatic progenitor cells and hESC-derived endocrine cells, retrieved after in-vivo differentiation in capsules in the subcutis of mice.

World Health Organization estimates of the global and regional disease burden of four foodborne chemical toxins, 2010: a data synthesis.

Background Chemical exposures have been associated with a variety of health effects; however, little is known about the global disease burden from foodborne chemicals. Food can be a major pathway for the general population's exposure to chemicals, and for some chemicals, it accounts for almost 100% of exposure.  Methods and Findings Groups of foodborne chemicals, both natural and anthropogenic, were evaluated for their ability to contribute to the burden of disease.

Pancreatic Tissue Transplanted in TheraCyte Encapsulation Devices Is Protected and Prevents Hyperglycemia in a Mouse Model of Immune-Mediated Diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by destruction of glucose-responsive insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells and exhibits immune infiltration of pancreatic islets, where CD8 lymphocytes are most prominent. Curative transplantation of pancreatic islets is seriously hampered by the persistence of autoreactive immune cells that require high doses of immunosuppressive drugs. An elegant approach to confer graft protection while obviating the need for immunosuppression is the use of encapsulation devices that allow for the transfer of oxygen and nutrients, yet prevent immune cells from making direct contact with the islet grafts.

Implementation of toxicokinetics in toxicity studies--Toxicokinetics of 4-methylanisole and its metabolites in juvenile and adult rats.

The current risk assessment of compounds is generally based on external exposure and effect relationships. External doses are often not representative for internal exposure concentrations. The aim of this study was to show how the implementation of toxicokinetics in a scheduled toxicity study contributes to improved data interpretation without additional use of animals and to the three goals of the 3R principles for animal testing.

Tolerance induction and reversal of diabetes in mice transplanted with human embryonic stem cell-derived pancreatic endoderm.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease caused by T cell-mediated destruction of insulin-producing β cells in the islets of Langerhans. In most cases, reversal of disease would require strategies combining islet cell replacement with immunotherapy that are currently available only for the most severely affected patients. Here, we demonstrate that immunotherapies that target T cell costimulatory pathways block the rejection of xenogeneic human embryonic-stem-cell-derived pancreatic endoderm (hESC-PE) in mice.

Arsenic: bioaccessibility from seaweed and rice, dietary exposure calculations and risk assessment.

Arsenic is a metalloid that occurs in food and the environment in different chemical forms. Inorganic arsenic is classified as a class I carcinogen. The inorganic arsenic intake from food and drinking water varies depending on the geographic arsenic background.

Evidence-based medicine in aesthetic medicine and surgery: reality or fantasy?

Unlabelled: The goal of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is for health-care professionals to incorporate existing medical evidence into clinical practice to achieve the greatest possible outcomes. The theory of EBM has been employed since the 11th century and has evolved dramatically into the modern application used by practicing physicians today. There are five levels of evidence currently used to evaluate if certain techniques, methods, and surgical procedures are the "best" to be used in practice.

Tissue distribution and elimination after oral and intravenous administration of different titanium dioxide nanoparticles in rats.

Objective: The aim of this study was to obtain kinetic data that can be used in human risk assessment of titanium dioxide nanomaterials.

Methods: Tissue distribution and blood kinetics of various titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NM-100, NM-101, NM-102, NM-103, and NM-104), which differ with respect to primary particle size, crystalline form and hydrophobicity, were investigated in rats up to 90 days post-exposure after oral and intravenous administration of a single or five repeated doses.

Results: For the oral study, liver, spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes were selected as target tissues for titanium (Ti) analysis.

Bioaccessibility of vitamin A, vitamin C and folic acid from dietary supplements, fortified food and infant formula.

In the Netherlands, vitamin intake occurs mainly via food and for some vitamins also via fortified food. In addition, some people take dietary supplements. Information on the bioavailability of vitamins is important for a good estimation of the actual exposure to vitamins.

Neutrophils are needed for an effective immune response against pulmonary rat coronavirus infection, but also contribute to pathology.

Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) infiltrate the respiratory tract early after viral infection and can contribute to both host defence and pathology. Coronaviruses are important causes of respiratory tract infections, ranging from mild to severe depending on the viral strain. This study evaluated the role of PMN during a non-fatal pulmonary coronavirus infection in the natural host.

Does EU legislation allow the use of the Benchmark Dose (BMD) approach for risk assessment?

Hazard characterisation is largely based on an approach of (statistically) comparing dose groups with the controls in order to derive points of departure such as no-observed-adverse-effect levels (NOAELs) or lowest-observed-adverse-effect levels (LOAELs). This approach suggests the absence of any relevant effect at the NOAEL. The NOAEL approach has been debated for decades.

Identification of a functional domain within the p115 tethering factor that is required for Golgi ribbon assembly and membrane trafficking.

The tethering factor p115 (known as Uso1p in yeast) has been shown to facilitate Golgi biogenesis and membrane traffic in cells in culture. However, the role of p115 within an intact animal is largely unknown. Here, we document that depletion of p115 by using RNA interference (RNAi) in C.

An inter-laboratory trial of the unified BARGE bioaccessibility method for arsenic, cadmium and lead in soil.

The Bioaccessibility Research Group of Europe (BARGE) has carried out an inter-laboratory trial of a proposed harmonised in vitro physiologically based ingestion bioaccessibility procedure for soils, called the Unified BARGE Method (UBM). The UBM includes an initial saliva phase and simulated stomach and intestine compartments. The trial involved the participation of seven laboratories (five European and two North American) providing bioaccessibility data for As (11 samples), Cd (9 samples) and Pb (13 samples) using soils with in vivo relative bioavailability data measured using a swine model.